Black Widows: Fifty Shades Of Green
by MetalOx137
Summary: A fresh lead into the disappearance of Dr. Bruce Banner sends Natasha and her team into a situation with more Hulk-sized trouble than they bargained for. Continuation of the Infinity War AU series.
1. Chapter 1

"Well, here we are," Maria Hill announced, as she opened the front door. "Home sweet home."

Wanda Maximoff stepped inside the foyer and peered expectantly into the space beyond. "This is your place?"

Maria grinned. "Be it ever so humble."

It was a late afternoon in early summer, and Maria Hill had invited her teammates Natasha Romanoff and Wanda Maximoff to stay with her at her modest two-bedroom tract home in Annapolis, until they could find a new permanent home somewhere else close by. The foyer in which they were standing merged with a small but comfortable living room on the right. The hallway directly in front of them led off to the rest of the house.

Natasha set her valise down on the tiled floor and looked around approvingly. "Maria, we can't thank you enough, for putting us up."

The dark-haired former S.H.I.E.L.D. operative smiled at her friends warmly. "It's my pleasure. I'm just so glad you decided to move down here, instead of asking everyone to move to New York. I'm gonna have this place paid off in another year."

Natasha chuckled softly. "Well, it made more sense for Wanda and I to join you here," she answered, pushing back a stray lock of her shoulder length dark red hair. "You, Sam and Sharon are already based in or near the D.C. metro area. And Nick is planning to head back here, just as soon as he gets the clearance from his doctors."

"Has he responded to our job offer yet?"

Natasha smiled. "He says he's thinking about it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed."

"Yeah, me too. Well, don't just stand there," Maria admonished them playfully. "Come in. Sit down. Relax. Make yourselves at home. The spare bedroom is through there," she pointed down the hallway. "The guest bathroom is the second door on your left. Kitchen's at the very back of the house. I haven't made any dinner plans yet, but there's beer in the fridge and wine bottles in the rack. Help yourselves to anything."

"Any place where we can get shawarma?" Wanda asked hopefully.

"Relax, rookie," Maria grinned. "Annapolis may be on the very edge of civilization, but I'm pretty sure we can find you a restaurant. We might even have a drugstore and a gas station."

Wanda cast an exasperated glance over at Natasha. "How long does she get to call me that?"

"As long as she wants, apparently," Natasha smiled mischievously.

"Sharon joined the team after I did," Wanda complained. "Why isn't she the rookie?"

"Because you are the most junior and least experienced member of our team," Maria said simply.

"What Maria means is, she's going to take you under her wing, and mentor you," Natasha suggested diplomatically.

"No, it means I'm going to make you take out the garbage, and do any other dirty jobs I don't feel like doing," Maria said with a completely straight face.

Wanda understood that she was being kidded, but she was still slightly put out; with a huff of annoyance, she lugged her suitcase down the hallway and into the spare bedroom.

Maria turned to Natasha. "We can discuss sleeping arrangements in detail later, but if you'd prefer to sleep in a bed of your own, I can certainly take the couch in the living room for a few nights."

"Maria, no, you've done enough for us already," Natasha protested. "Wanda and I can bunk together. Besides, it's not like we don't do that already. Falling asleep on the couch in front of T.V. has become something of a tradition for us."

"I assume you guys will be looking for a place together?"

Natasha grinned. "We're joined at the hip, until further notice."

Wanda returned from the spare bedroom. "Can I get your suitcase?" she asked Natasha.

"Thank you, Wanda. And secure Sandy for the night, please."

"Will do."

The young girl hurried out the front door, her long, gently curling flame-red hair trailing out behind her like a comet.

"Did she do something to her hair?" Maria asked, slightly puzzled.

Natasha grinned. "Wanda's hair changes color, depending on her mood. Well, it doesn't change color exactly - but it shifts to a lighter or darker red, depending on her emotional state. You can actually see it happen, if you pay attention. It caught me off guard the first time I noticed it, too."

"So, she can change the color of her hair, just by thinking about it," Maria shook her head.

Natasha's grin widened into a bright smile. "Cool, huh?"

Maria chuckled, mentally adding one more item to the ever-growing list of things she couldn't quite believe. "Come on into the kitchen," she invited Natasha. "We'll get you a beer, or a glass of wine, or something."

The kitchen and dining room, like the rest of the house, was comfortably albeit spartanly furnished. Natasha had half-expected as much. Like herself, Maria had spent most of her career on assignment, and far away from home. Despite its relative lack of use, the house was warm and welcoming, and the kitchen had attractive glass floor-to-ceiling panels that looked out over a wide patio with three deck chairs. The backyard - if it could be called that - was barely a few feet wide and across, with overgrown, deep green summer grass, bordered by a copse of oak and maple trees that created an agreeable canopy of green shading the yard in late afternoon.

"This is nice," Natasha nodded approvingly.

"Yeah. I like it here," Maria agreed. "Ever since S.H.I.E.L.D. collapsed, I've actually had a chance to spend some time here. Guess I should think about moving in," she joked.

Natasha picked up a framed picture that was sitting on the counter. It showed a much younger Maria, probably in her late teens, gathered with four other children, around an older man and woman sitting in deck chairs.

"Your family?"

Maria smiled sadly. "Yeah. My mom and dad, and my two brothers and two sisters."

Natasha regarded the faces in the picture, trying to gauge the age of Maria's siblings. "You're second oldest?"

"Third. I was born right in the middle of the pack." She pointed to the faces. "Older brother Jake, younger sister Tracy, older brother Ron, baby sister Natalie. This was taken in Chicago, I think sixteen years ago now."

"Chicago? Is that where you're from?"

"Yeah." Maria's expression turned wistful.

"Any of your family close by?"

Maria shook her head sadly. "It's just me and Nat now. She's still in Chicago. Mom and Dad died in a car crash, eight years ago. The rest of my family, they, ahh..." she drew in a sharp breath. "They kind of got finger-snapped out of existence." It was difficult for Maria to keep an ugly edge of bitterness out of her voice.

"Oh, my God, oh, Maria, I'm so sorry," Natasha murmured, anguished.

"Don't be. Thanos was not your fault. You did everything you could. I know that."

"But..."

"My situation isn't unique. I don't need or deserve any special consideration," Maria said firmly. "Every one of us has lost someone we love." She sighed heavily, and managed a faint smile. "I try not to dwell on things I can't change."

"All the same. I'm so sorry for your loss."

"And I for yours." Maria opened the fridge and peeked inside. "Okay, let's see, I have beer, wine, water, some sun tea..."

"Iced tea would be very welcome, thanks."

"No beer?"

"You could probably tempt me to a glass of wine later."

"Great. Let's go sit out on the deck," Maria suggested. "It's way too nice outside to be inside."

They stepped out onto the porch, and quickly settled themselves in two of the deck chairs. Wanda joined them outside a moment later, exultantly drinking in the glorious summer weather.

"It's so green here," she marveled, her whole face lit up with joy.

"This is nothing. After you guys get settled, I'll take you out for some day trips, west of the Potomac. Some of the most beautiful countryside you'll ever see," Maria promised.

"Where do Sam and Sharon live?"

Maria did a quick mental calculation. "Sam actually lives in D.C., in the southeast quad." She jerked her thumb over her left shoulder. "About fifty clicks that-a-way. Sharon's a little further west, she's got a place out in McLean now."

"Doesn't Nick Fury have a house out here, too?" Wanda asked.

"As far as I know, he still has his place in D.C. Northwest. Some mighty toney neighborhoods over there," Maria noted. "Actually, McLean might not be a bad place for us to start looking for our new headquarters," she suggested to Natasha. "Even before half the world disappeared, the CIA was trying to consolidate a lot of their old office spaces. Sharon has some leads she'll check out for us. We might be able to find something close to D.C. that won't cost a fortune."

"Well, that will make Pepper happy," Natasha mused, sipping her tea. "Since she'll be the one paying for it."

"Was she upset when you told her we wouldn't be using the new Avengers facility?"

"No. She seemed fine with it," Natasha answered. "I think the Pentagon have their eyes on that site, anyway. And Pepper already had an idea we'd be setting up shop closer to D.C."

"The place Tony built was a freakin' city," Maria said.

"I know. Way too big, and way too remote for us," Natasha sighed. "And frankly... after half the world's people just vanished into thin air..." Natasha paused. "I wanted to be somewhere closer to other people," she confessed.

"I know how you feel," Maria nodded sympathetically. "Even the crowded places seem empty. It's weird. And it's not just about the people you know personally, either. It's everyone. And everything. Half as many people at the grocery store. Half as many people at the bar. Half the doctors. Half the lawyers..."

"Half the politicians?" Wanda suggested.

"Okay," Maria took a thoughtful sip from her glass of tea. "So, not everything's bad, then."

"Is she joking?" Wanda asked Natasha.

Natasha grinned. "Sometimes, it's hard to tell."

"So, what's the plan, boss?" Maria asked.

"Tonight, we'll go out somewhere, and grab an early dinner," Natasha decided. "I'll buy. Then tomorrow, first thing, Wanda and I start looking for places to live."

"We made a list of potential places before we left this morning," Wanda added. "But you know this area way better than we do. We were hoping you could advise us which are the best neighborhoods to check out."

"Sure. I'd be happy to. So, are you looking for a house, a condo, what?"

"Two bedroom apartment or condo, definitely," Natasha answered. "We're always on the move, so a house is more work than I'm looking for at this stage. Doesn't need to be anything fancy or too far upscale. Does need to be private, though. Clean and quiet is what I care about."

"I think we can manage that," Maria nodded. "Half the apartments around here are empty, too. We can probably find something where you can name your own price."

"Any chance we could get Sam and Sharon working on a new HQ for us?"

"I'll ask, but Sam's been pretty busy at the VA lately. And Sharon is still working full-time for the CIA."

"What's she planning to do about that?"

"She's talking to her bosses, trying to arrange for an exit. But she's getting some pushback. It takes a while to get vetted for Central Intelligence, you know. And once you get in, the agency's not anxious to let anyone go - and that was before half their staff disappeared. It's even worse with someone like Sharon, who has a list of qualifications longer than most people's arms."

"Good people are always the hardest to find, and the hardest to keep," Natasha agreed.

"Well, Sharon wants to come work with us. That's something in our favor." Maria set down her iced tea glass. "Okay, so let's see what we can do about dinner," she cast a sly grin in Wanda's direction. "I'm sure if we look hard enough, we can find someplace that's got paprikash for our rookie."

Much later in the evening, as Wanda and Natasha crawled into opposite sides of the king-sized bed in Maria's guest room, Wanda burrowed under the covers and lay on her side facing Natasha.

"Are you sure it's okay for us to stay here?" she asked in a quiet voice.

Natasha frowned. "What do you mean? Of course it is. Why are you even asking that?"

When Wanda didn't reply immediately, Natasha prompted gently, "Wanda? What is it?"

"I don't know, it's just... I don't think Maria likes me very much," she confided.

"Why on earth would you think that?" Natasha asked, dismayed.

Wanda made a face. "She's always teasing me," she complained finally.

"Ahh." Natasha smiled with understanding. "That's a good thing."

"It is?"

"It means she's warming up to you."

"You mean, she doesn't hate me as much."

"Wanda - Maria doesn't hate you." She reached over under the blankets, found Wanda's hand and squeezed it gently. "You have to understand, even for people who know you and trust you, the abilities you have can be a little... intimidating. You can do things nobody else can do. Things most other people can't even dream of. It can make people wary, even if you don't mean for them to feel that way." She hesitated for a moment, and then smiled. "Nick Fury says you're more powerful than Thor's hammer and Tony's Iron Man suit combined."

"He does?"

Wanda's dark eyes went wide with amazement.

"You are not, under any circumstances, ever to mention I told you that," Natasha cautioned sternly. "To anyone."

"Okay."

"The point is, when Maria teases you, she's trying to ingratiate herself with you. I've known Maria for a while now, and this is how she acts around people she likes and respects. It means, she's inviting you into her circle of trust. And believe me, Maria does not do that with very many people."

"So, when she teases me, she's saying she likes me?"

"Hard to believe, I know," Natasha grinned. "People are weird. Get used to it. But if she ever crosses a line with you - by which I mean, if she says or does something that genuinely upsets you, don't make a fuss about it. Just tell her, plainly and honestly, where your boundaries are. I promise, she will listen. And she won't do it again. Maria does like and respect you. Once you get to know each other a little better, I'm sure you'll see that's true."

Natasha could almost hear the gears grinding in Wanda's brain as she mulled that over. "Okay," the young woman agreed finally.

"Now get some sleep. Tomorrow's a big day." Natasha gave Wanda's hand a final squeeze. "I love you, Wanda Maximoff."

"I love you, Natalia Alianovna," Wanda replied, her voice already dusky with somnolence. Wanda closed her eyes, and within moments, the girl's deep, rhythmic breathing assured Natasha that she had already fallen fast asleep. For a several moments, Natasha lay where she was, watching her 'baby sister' sleeping peacefully, a wistful expression on her face. She finally rolled over with a sigh, turned out the light on the nightstand, adjusted her pillow and closed her eyes. _If only the rest of the world's problems could be solved so easily,_ she thought, and then promptly fell into a deep sleep herself.


	2. Chapter 2

The next two weeks passed in a blur. Natasha and Wanda found a beautiful two bedroom condominium on a secluded, tree-lined street in McLean almost immediately, less than two miles from where Sharon lived. Two days after that, Sharon had phoned excitedly with a message that she had found a potential site for their new headquarters. Natasha and Maria toured the building that same afternoon. It was small and modest, by the standards of either the military or the various intelligence-gathering agencies that clustered on the outskirts of D.C. The building had three floors and was listed at 65,000 square feet, not counting the parking lot. But as the two women walked through the property, they grinned at one another, both thinking and feeling the same thing: this could work.

The building itself was in the cul-de-sac of a now mostly abandoned office park, even though nearly all of the buildings in that area were less than five years old. The property was surrounded by a grove of tall ash and maple trees, making the site naturally attractive and adding to the sense of relative seclusion. The ground floor had a lobby, a commissary, a rather impressive gymnasium complete with men and women's locker rooms and showers, and, around the back side, a secured garage and warehouse that could hold at least a half-dozen vehicles - most likely intended for the receipt of confidential intelligence materials. The middle floor was mostly made up of offices, and the top floor boasted a large conference room on the east side that could easily seat two dozen people. Whatever company had previously leased the space had even left behind an impressively massive mahogany conference room table, as well as several leather-lined reclining chairs. On the west side of the top floor was what had once been an IT shop, with a large staging area for multiple blades and servers, and a "situation room", with all the flat-screen monitors still in place, including one massive screen that took up the entire south wall.

Natasha and Maria liked what they saw, and so a day later, on an afternoon when Sam and Sharon were both free, they toured the property again, this time with the entire team in tow. At the end of the inspection, they put the matter to an informal vote, and everyone agreed this could be the headquarters for the new Black Widows team. Natasha called Pepper Stark later that evening to inform her of the news.

Pepper very graciously sent Happy Hogan out to the site the very next morning to help supervise the installation - and a small army of building contractors arrived later that same day. Although the building was in pristine shape, with no structural issues to be addressed, there was still a surprising amount of work to be done, and an exhaustive string of decisions to be made. Even with all the help, Natasha, Maria and Wanda were often onsite from 6 AM to well after 10 PM every day, and increasingly Sam was onsite to help out as well. The first thing Happy did was scour the building for any surveillance apparatus that might have been left behind by the previous occupants. The building was declared clean, and so the process of refurbishment began in earnest. By the end of the second day, Natasha took Happy aside and pleaded for several of the offices on the second floor to be converted into private "nap room" suites with couches and beds. That side project took another two days to complete.

By the end of the second week, the building was more or less ready for the team's use - although Happy pledged to remain onsite for a few more days, while putting together a small hand-picked team of operations staff to oversee the physical security and maintenance of the site. To Natasha's delight, Nick Fury signed on to become the team's operations and security officer. The very best news, however, came just before the weekend: Pepper sent a quick text to Natasha, advising that Tony had recovered enough to come out for a visit, and to give the new HQ his signature upgrade and blessing. Natasha found herself blinking back tears of joy at the news.

That Friday morning, despite her exhaustion, Natasha felt turbo-charged with excitement: her new team was now fully assembled, and their new headquarters was ready to use. It was time to get to work for real, and Natasha couldn't wait to get started.

Since Wanda was in New York with Sandy, making final arrangements to close down their old apartment, Natasha accepted a ride from Maria and her battered old pickup truck.

"So, where's our newest recruit this morning?" Natasha asked, as they pulled into the parking lot at the rear of the building.

"She said she'd be in the gym. Full contact sparring with Sam."

Natasha raised an eyebrow. "Full contact?"

"She says she considers it an audition for her place on the team."

"Sharon doesn't need an audition," Natasha objected. "We already vetted her. And accepted her."

They exited the vehicle, and Natasha touched the palm-print reader next to the external door. She leaned over slightly so the security camera could read the iris of her eye. The doors opened silently.

"I'm just amazed that the CIA would let her go so easily," Maria said, as they entered the empty lobby.

"I doubt it was that easy," Natasha admitted. "Nick pulled some strings for us."

They waited to make sure the doors had closed behind them, before taking the short hallway to their right.

"It's gonna be so weird, giving Nick orders from now on," Maria shook her head.

"Weirder for you, I think," Natasha observed. "You were his deputy director for, what, four years?"

"Four and a half. Now he gets to be the one who follows us around with a clipboard in his hands. And he really says he's fine with it?"

"He does. And I think he means it," Natasha nodded, and then smiled sadly. "He's like the old warhorse who's too scarred to stay on the battlefield, but still wants to be in the fight."

"Hmm. I'll be sure to tell him that you described him that way," Maria grinned mischievously.

"Actually, that was how Nick described himself to me."

"Oh."

"Honestly, I'm so glad he agreed to join us. We really do need someone who can work behind the scenes, and who still has pull with all the militaries and intelligence communities around the world. Nick's presence is gonna make things a lot easier for us."

"Our sixth man," Maria quipped.

"More like our MVP," Natasha grinned.

They had reached the front entrance to the gymnasium. Even from out in the hallway, Natasha and Maria could hear furious shrieks of attack coming from Sharon, the sound of landing blows, and apparent grunts of pain from Sam.

"Wow. Sounds like a title bout going on in there," Natasha murmured.

Maria grinned. "Let's go see."

They touched the palm readers on the door and entered the gym. It was a wide, open space, mostly filled with standard exercise equipment - weights, cycles, treadmills - but at the far end, near the showers and locker rooms, was a boxing ring, and inside the ropes were Sam Wilson and Sharon Carter, sparring against one another.

As Natasha and Maria got closer, it became obvious that Sam and Sharon were not engaged in an actual fight after all. Sam was wearing kick pads on his forearms and shins, with some protective headgear as well as a chest protector, and he was not throwing any punches or kicks. Instead, he was just keeping his arms raised, to allow himself to be used as a target. However, he was intentionally closing on Sharon, pushing her, shoving her, trying to back her into corners or against the ropes, limiting her space for movement and making it more difficult for her to strike.

Sharon was wearing one of the brand new combat suits designed for the team, a sleek, all-black bodysuit with a high, open collar and a small blood-red hourglass logo on the right shoulder. Instead of boots, Sharon was wearing a set of padded shoes, especially intended for practice inside the ring, and her outfit had no belt or weapons attached. She had tied her long blonde hair back into a ponytail, but by now, most of it was drenched with sweat and plastered against the sides of her face and neck.

The amount of energy Sharon was expending gave both Natasha and Maria pause. She was fast, blindingly fast, and her strikes were precise, almost without fail directly on target. She sent Sam staggering back time and again with a flurry of blows so quick they could barely be seen.

She was also shrieking aloud often as she struck out, and Natasha suspected that Sharon was using vocalization as a technique to help focus her energy. Natasha and Maria stayed well back, watching the bout intently.

"She's had some serious training," Maria observed with admiration.

"She's got good technique," Natasha allowed. She was thinking to herself, Sharon couldn't possibly expend this much energy in a real fight. But Natasha had to admit, she was impressed with what she saw. Up to now, Natasha knew Sharon's abilities only by reputation. Here was a chance for her to actually see Sharon's skill sets in use - and she wasn't displeased with the results.

Sam was trying to corner her again, and the young blonde was furiously trying to push him back. Sam was naturally strong, and he was not only taller than Sharon, but also outweighed her by a significant amount. But Natasha could see that the young man was straining with difficulty to keep Sharon cornered. Sharon finally got him to stagger back with an especially vicious series of blows, then with a scream of absolute fury, she bounced herself off the back rope and delivered a brutal, spot-on-target flying drop kick to the center of Sam's chest. Sam slammed hard onto his back, the force of the blow sending him sprawling all the way to the very center of the ring. Both Natasha and Maria involuntarily gasped at the sheer violence of the blow.

"Whoa," Maria grimaced in sympathetic pain.

"Very nice," Natasha called out, effectively putting a stop to the fight.

Sharon Carter, on seeing her new teammates approaching the ring, dropped her defensive posture and settled into a more "at ease" pose.

"Hey, guys," she greeted them breathlessly.

"Sam, you okay?" Maria asked in a worried tone.

"Yeah." Sam Wilson slowly rolled over onto his side, and pushed himself up on one elbow with a painful grunt. Despite the fact he'd just been floored by a young woman a fraction of his size, he actually seemed quite pleased. In fact, once he got his mouth guard out, he was audibly chuckling.

"Hey, boss," he greeted Natasha. "Looks like you've got a brand new Widow on your hands."

"Glad to hear it," Natasha said, resting her elbows on the side of the ring. Once she was assured that Sam wasn't really hurt, she grinned. "And I can see that, too."

"This new combat suit is amazing," Sharon gushed. "It's so light - it's like a second skin. I can hardly tell I have it on!"

"They're nice," Natasha agreed. "The fabric really breathes with you. It also has a layer that insulates against extreme heat or cold. And believe it or not, that suit also has bulletproof shields, front and back, for the chest area, as well as two more across the upper thighs."

"No way," Sharon shook her head, disbelieving. She pinched the fabric experimentally. "It's just too light and soft for any sort of shielding like that."

"I won't use you for target practice, but I promise, it's true," Natasha grinned. "You can thank Tony Stark for the design. Although truth be told, I think he got the initial specs - and a lot of the materials - from Queen Shuri."

"I'll have to thank them both," Sharon said, reaching over to help Sam to his feet.

"Where'd you learn to fight like that?" Natasha asked with genuine curiosity.

"Well, I took basic training, like all the cadets..."

"Yes, but you didn't learn moves like that at the Academy."

"No." Sharon stared down at her feet, suddenly shy and self-conscious. "Steve, ahh, taught me a few tricks."

Natasha felt a little pang in her heart. Everyone on the team had been profoundly affected by the death of Steve Rogers - the loss of their guiding light hurt like no other - but no one felt that loss more keenly than Sharon Carter.

"Steve would be very proud of you right now," Natasha assured her in a quiet voice, and Sharon responded with a grateful smile.

Nick Fury entered from the door nearest the ring. He was still dressed in all black, but unlike the military gear he used to wear, he had settled now for comfortable slacks, slip-on shoes and a loose-fitting turtleneck. Maria had to bite her lip to keep from grinning, as Fury actually held a digital clipboard in one hand. Natasha was just happy to see him finally walking without his cane. The former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. looked over at Sharon and Sam in the ring, and shook his head, tutting disapprovingly.

"Wilson, are you still letting these women kick your sorry ass?" he demanded.

Sam grinned ruefully. "Yes, sir, I am, sir."

"Good man. Keep up the excellent work." He turned to Natasha and Maria. "Tony's ready for you in the conference room upstairs, if you're free."

"Tony's here already?" Natasha gasped in astonishment.

"Are you kidding? He's been here since five AM this morning. Working like a fiend. Happy gave him full access to all the systems. I was pretty sure you'd be okay with that."

"Yeah, absolutely," Natasha nodded. "We'll head up there right now. Looks like the show's over here." Natasha gave Sam an affectionate grin.

"No way! I'm ready to go again!" Sharon exclaimed, still flushed with the exhilaration of her victory.

"Easy, there, tiger," Maria cautioned. "Sam's on our side. And we do need him in one piece. Don't break him."

"Yeah, I'm delicate and fragile," Sam quipped good-naturedly.

"If you seriously want a match, a real match, I can take you on later this afternoon," Natasha smiled at Sharon. "I'd like the chance to see what you've got first hand."

"Sure, yeah," Sharon nodded appreciatively. "That would be great. Thanks."

She seemed to hesitate for a moment.

"Something wrong?" Natasha asked.

"Nothing wrong, it's just -" Sharon flashed an embarrassed smile. "You're my new team leader. And I don't know how I should address you."

"Oh! Well, we're not standing on ceremony here," Natasha assured her. "I don't have a rank or title. In the field, if you have to identify me during an op, I'm the 'Black Widow', or just 'Widow'. The rest of the time, you can call me Nat, or Tasha, or Natasha. I'll answer to any of those."

"Okay."

"You'll have to come up a field alias for yourself, though, so start giving that some thought."

Sharon wiped away the sweat on her brow with the back of her hand. "I get a code name?"

"Just like any other superhero," Maria deadpanned.

"We're going to need a field alias for you, too," Natasha pointed out to Maria.

"I thought I was going to be the 'Queen of the Universe'," Maria protested.

"No, Mila Kunis already took that one."

Maria sighed in mock dismay. "Damn. Oh, by the way, Sharon, our esteemed director over there is always addressed as either 'Director' or 'Sir'. Only Natasha and I get to call him 'boss'."

Nick Fury snorted with either amusement or disgust - or maybe both. "I'm not running this henhouse, Hill. You are."

"Doesn't matter. You're still the boss, Boss."

Fury flashed an exasperated 'are you done' look at Maria, and then turned to Sharon. "Miss Carter, as Natasha says, we're not big on titles around here. You're welcome to call me 'Nick'."

"Thank you, Nick," Sharon grinned. "And please call me Sharon."

"If I might suggest, Director, you may want to keep your title, to use as your field alias," Natasha hinted to Fury.

"I think I'm likely done working in the field, Natasha," Fury sighed sadly.

"Never say never, Nick." She gave the older man a wistful smile. "We'll always need you," she added in a softer voice. "Don't ever make the mistake of thinking we don't." She broadened her smile, to lighten her unintended pathos. "The title still fits," she declared. "Wear it proudly."

She turned to Maria. "Okay, let's go see what exciting things Tony has to show us. See ya later, guys."

"Stay on your feet, Sam," Maria called over her shoulder, as the two of them left the gym.

Sharon crossed to the edge of the ring and stepped under the top rope. "Thanks for the workout, Sam," she smiled shyly. "I'm gonna go clean myself up. See you later?"

"Absolutely," Sam nodded.

"Great. Good to see you again, sir - ahh, Nick," Sharon quickly corrected herself.

"Good to see you too, Sharon. Welcome to the Black Widows."

As soon as the door to the women's locker room shut behind Sharon, Sam glanced down at Nick Fury. He sighed.

"We're in over our heads here, aren't we, sir?"

Fury nodded his head in solemn agreement. "That is a fact, Wilson," he declared. "We're so far in over our heads, we got no idea how deep we really are."

* * *

Tony Stark was hunched over a laptop on the conference room table. He smiled with genuine pleasure when Natasha and Maria entered the room.

"Good morning, ladies," he greeted them warmly.

"Tony. Oh, my God, it is so good to see you." Natasha hurried forward and gave him a fierce hug.

"Yeah, well, it's good to be seen. And to have finally escaped house arrest," Stark quipped, also giving Maria a quick hug of greeting. "Ms. Hill. You're looking lovelier every day."

"Thanks, Tony. It's good to see you, too."

In truth, Tony Stark looked pale and gaunt. His face appeared to have aged overnight by several years. But to Natasha, none of that mattered. The last few times she'd seen Tony, he had been borderline catatonic, and there had been no sign of the real man in those vacant, staring eyes. For as careworn as Tony's face had now become, his eyes once again shone with the fierce, burning intelligence that marked him as the man he truly was. It was such a relief to look into those eyes and see that, at long last, someone was finally home. Natasha couldn't help but hug him again out of sheer exuberance.

"We can't thank you enough, for all that you and Pepper have done to help us get started," she murmured, releasing him.

"It's not a problem, believe me. It's a relief to not be staring cross-eyed at four walls all day." He looked around the conference room in bemusement. "Are you sure you guys want to work out of this shoebox?" he asked. "We've got all kinds of free space at Stark Tower. Sixteen floors open right now. Secret labs. Private jets. Giant talking robots. No, wait, we got rid of those. Anyway. Still. It's Candyland."

"We appreciate the offer, Tony, we really do," Natasha assured him. "But our operation isn't going to be anything on that kind of scale."

"The first Avengers team had a spotlight shining on them from day one," Maria added. "We're trying to make this team a little more covert. If that's possible, anyway."

"Okay. You're the boss. Bosses," he corrected himself. "So. I've got Sandy up and running as your house AI."

"Wonderful!"

"She's also established in two of the Sandies, including the original one that Wanda's got with her in New York, plus another one down in the garage. We'll make sure there's enough Sandies for everyone in the next couple of days."

"That's awesome, Tony, thank you."

"Nick's situation room is already set up and ready to go. There's still room to put in a pool table downstairs, though."

"Oh, Sam will be pleased to hear that."

"Well, I'm pleased that you guys are gonna continue the Avengers' work. I think it's terrific that you're picking up that torch. The world needs a good response team."

"You don't have to sit on the sidelines, Tony," Maria suggested gently.

"Yeah, I think I kinda do," Stark managed a humorless smile. "Got the fight knocked out of me a little bit," he confided, and then he sighed. "Besides, I'm getting old. Bits falling off. Nothing works and everything hurts. Gotta shave my ears. That part sucks, by the way. But," he added quickly, "I'm actually enjoying my semi-retirement. Spending a lot more quality time with Pepper. Which has been really great. That's a decision I wish I'd made years ago."

Natasha smiled warmly at her old friend. "Well, there's always a place for you here, if you should ever change your mind."

"I appreciate that, Natasha. I truly do. But after seeing what you and your team accomplished in Sokovia, I thought to myself, damn, we should have handed off the reins to you ladies ten years ago."

Maria raised an eyebrow. "Only ten years ago?" She teased gently.

"What, you expect me to hand you a repulsor cannon when you're only twelve?" Tony shot back.

"Well, thanks for insinuating we're all under thirty," Maria laughed.

"Anyway, I just have a little more tinkering to do, and then the place is all yours. Is Nick Fury around? I'd like to go over some of the situation room setup with him."

"Sure, he's here. We just saw him downstairs, talking to Sam and Sharon in the gym."

"Great. Let me follow up with him, and I'll check in with you later."

"You _will_ stay for dinner?" Natasha asked hopefully.

Stark seemed to hesitate, so Maria quickly added, "It would mean a lot to us, Tony. You could officially pass the torch to the new team over a plate of shawarma," she added coaxingly.

Tony Stark nodded slowly, and then smiled. "Yeah. Sure. That sounds great. Later, then."

He hurried from the room.

Maria sighed. "He's still not quite all there, is he?"

"No," Natasha agreed sadly. "But, God, he's so much better now than he was even a few weeks ago. Just to see him responding and interacting with everyone is a real blessing."

"Well, besides you, he is the last original Avenger," Maria noted. "Unless Bruce or Thor suddenly show up and ask for a seat at the round table, that is."

"That would make my day," Natasha declared solemnly. "That would make my life."

"Seriously, supposing Doctor Foster does find Thor?" Maria asked. "What then? Do we invite him to join the team?"

With a completely straight face, Natasha answered, "I don't know, do you think he's good enough for us?"

And then they both burst into peals of good-natured laughter.

* * *

Tony Stark found Nick Fury in the lobby on the first floor. As Fury looked up to see Stark approaching him, he shook his head, smiling. "Tony Stark. As I live and breathe," he greeted him. "It must be the end of the world. I'm actually pleased to see you."

"Yeah, same here," Stark answered, shaking Fury's hand warmly. "I won't ask you how you're doing, Nick. I think I already know the answer."

"Me? I'm doing just fine. I still wake up on the right side of the dirt, and I found a situation where I'm both needed and wanted. It doesn't get much better than that."

"No, it surely doesn't," Stark agreed solemnly. "Listen, there's something I need to show you. Something confidential. Something... big."

"You mean, new security arrangements for the facility here?"

"More in the way of... a mission for the team."

Fury frowned. "Then you should be talking to Natasha. Or Maria."

"Yeah." Stark was clearly uncomfortable as he spoke. "I really want you to see this first. Because honestly, I'm not sure how Natasha would react."

Fury could feel an alarm bell starting to go off in the back of his head. "Why? What is it?"

"It's easier if I just show you," Stark replied. "Can we go to the situation room for a minute?"

A few moments later, the two men entered the situation room. Stark carefully closed the door behind them, locked it, and then grabbed a small, hand-held remote from the table.

"Before you ask, you don't want to know where I stole this footage from," he warned. "The agency that collected it has suppressed all media coverage. They don't want it seen by anyone, mainly because they don't a want to start a world wide panic."

Stark flipped the PLAY button on the remote. "There's no audio," he warned Fury. "You'll have to watch."

The footage that came up on the monitor was apparently taken from a hand-held camera. The quality was dismally poor - the lighting was low, and the picture was often grainy and out of focus. The camera frame shook constantly. But in the footage, they could see what appeared to be a deserted city street in early morning. A male figure, wearing only a pair of torn trousers, his back to the camera, was approaching a parked car along the curb. As the man walked, his form shifted and blurred, gaining mass and weight with every stride, until he was easily four times larger than the size when he had first appeared on screen. And while the color of the recording was washed out, it was obvious that the skin color of the man had changed as well, from a warm pinkish-brown to something almost pale green. The figure stopped by the car, regarded it for a moment, then calmly brought down a ham-sized fist, smashing not only the hood of the vehicle but also crushing the engine beneath. Slowly and methodically, the figure began to hammer and stomp the vehicle into a flat mass, crumpling it as easily as tin foil. After leaving the car a complete wreck, the figure stood back, apparently contemplating his work, and then slowly shrunk back down to a normal human size. The footage ended abruptly. Fury felt his blood going cold.

"There's no way to get a positive ID," Stark muttered. "He always has his back to the camera, and the picture quality is too poor to look for other means of identification. But I only know of one guy who can blow himself up to four hundred pounds of bright green rage, and then shrink back down to one-eighty at the drop of a hat."

He looked over at Fury, who was visibly just as unnerved by the footage as Stark was.

"How recent is this footage?" Fury asked, his voice taut.

"Less than seventy-two hours old." Stark sighed. "As I said. There's no way to confirm that it's actually Banner. But if it is..."

"Thanks, Tony," Fury said. "Thanks for bringing this to me."

Stark nodded and left the room. Fury rewound the footage, hit playback and then paused the footage where the mysterious figure stepped away from the ruined vehicle. He stared at the frozen image silently, a great icy fist of foreboding closing around his heart. There was no doubt, the team now had its first mission. Fury found himself wishing it could have been something not quite so potentially deadly. He shut off the projector, and, with a haunted look on his face, abruptly left the room.


	3. Chapter 3

Natasha Romanoff looked around the long mahogany table at the faces of her teammates staring expectantly back at her. She sighed.

"I really didn't expect for us to be using this conference room quite so quickly," she admitted. "But Tony brought something to Nick's attention that I think all of you should see."

She turned her chair slightly to bring Tony Stark directly into her line of sight. "And Tony, I appreciate that you were trying to spare my feelings. Thank you for being so considerate. But please, when anything this important comes up, bring it directly to me. Or to Maria." She did a sweeping glance around the table at her teammates. "While we're on the subject, just so we're clear, Maria is not my subordinate. She has equal authority with me to lead the team. If I'm not around, all decisions go through her, and vice versa. If Maria gives you an order, any order, I expect you to follow it. Especially in the field. Is everyone clear on the chain of command?"

Everyone around the table nodded and murmured their understanding and assent.

"Okay, then. Nick, would you please play back the video for everyone."

Nick Fury touched a control knob at the end of the table, and the short film of the Hulk-like creature destroying a parked car flickered across the projector.

There were quiet gasps of shock and surprise around the table as the video played. Once it reached the end, Fury backed the video up and did a freeze-frame at the moment when the creature stepped away from the destroyed vehicle - the closest thing to a clear shot in the entire film.

"It's Banner," Sam exclaimed. "It's got to be."

"But why is he smashing parked cars?" Sharon wondered aloud.

"Could be Banner," Fury interjected. "Could be something else."

Sam shot Fury an incredulous look. "Come on. It's got to be him. Who else _could_ it be?"

Maria regarded Nick Fury with a puzzled frown.

"You don't think it _is_ Bruce," she divined. "Why not?"

"Look. I'm not the subject matter expert here. But the one thing I do know about Banner is, he's not in control of the change. He's got this whole tail wagging the dog thing when it comes to his alter ego. This person -" he indicated the image on the screen - "Is not only fully in control of changing form, he's also clearly in charge of his other faculties. Look how he approaches that car. He's thinking about what he's going to do. Planning. Considering. And after he's done, he steps back, and calmly takes assessment of the damage. I've never known Banner to do anything like that when he's in his Hulk persona. Not ever."

"Maybe he's finally learned to control his other self," Sam suggested.

Fury shot a quick look at Natasha. "I'm sorry, Natasha. The team needs to know this."

Natasha hesitated for a moment, and then nodded silently.

"Banner is schizophrenic," Fury advised the team, while Natasha kept her eyes downcast on the table. "He's been diagnosed with the disorder. While it might seem that he has two distinct and separate personalities that are always fighting for control over one body, that is not the case. The Hulk and Bruce Banner are one and the same person, with the same set of memories. But when Banner changes, all the dissociative aspects of his illness are in full play. He likely won't recognize friends or acquaintances. And, as no doubt you've noticed, Banner's alter ego can be a pretty ill-tempered and belligerent fellow - and not big on rational or coherent thought. It's trouble enough for a normal person with no enhanced abilities. All evidence suggests that when the change is triggered, the stress on Banner's body impairs not only his intellect, but his emotional state as well. Banner's illness was never that severe. It might never have surfaced or even been detected, if it weren't for the accident that poisoned his entire body with gamma radiation."

Fury sighed sadly and sank back in his chair. "I hope you're right, Sam. I hope this is Banner, and that somehow, he's managed to gain full control of his greener self. But it's not likely. And Banner would have no need to test his enhanced abilities after changing. He already knows what he can do. This person is obviously still trying to figure that out."

"Maybe he's just trying to make certain he can stay in control, even if he's using his powers," Sharon suggested hopefully.

"Maybe. But the Doctor Banner I know wouldn't go around randomly destroying public or private property in such a haphazard way. If he were fully in control, he would find a much more discreet method of conducting such a test."

Natasha finally managed to pry her eyes off the table and look at her fellow team members. "Do we have any idea where this footage came from?"

"Not yet," Tony Stark answered. "There's no metadata on the recording itself. No GPS markers or anything like that. The agency that confiscated this video is also completely in the dark as to its source. I've got Sandy searching all online sources for similar incidents. But it's a big world out there."

Fury glared at Stark angrily. "You ever planning on giving us the details on exactly who you got your spyhooks in, Stark?"

"That depends." Stark was obviously carefully mulling over his response. "When you can tell me whether or not you still want access to this kind of data, then I can give you that answer. If you think that spying on the spies is not in the best interests of national security, then fine. No problem. I can shut everything down. Permanently. You can go to Google or YouTube to get your information. But if you really want to know what's going on, then, hey, I can turn everything over to you, lock, stock and barrel. Let you take it from here. You tell me what works for you. I'll do whatever you ask."

Fury sighed dejectedly and looked over at Natasha.

"We'll table that discussion for now," she decided. "Clear and present is finding out where this video was taken. So let's start digging. Help Sandy narrow down the possibilities. Wanda's already on her way back from New York. I'll call her and ask her to make the best possible time. And suit up, everyone," she suggested. "As soon as we have a solid lead as to the location, we're in the air."

With the meeting adjourned, everyone got up from the table, but Tony Stark slipped out the conference room door as if the fire alarm had been rung. Frowning, Natasha followed him to the third-floor elevator lobby.

"Going somewhere, Tony?"

Stark gave Natasha a haunted look. "I have to fly back to New York," he answered. "Like, right now. I have to re-activate the Veronica protocols."

"We won't need them."

Stark stared at Natasha incredulously. "Look. Natasha. Everyone knows that you and Banner have a thing. I respect that. I do. But suppose he's not in control. Suppose he doesn't respond to you, whatever the reason. If anything goes south, then Veronica is your best insurance policy. She's your _only_ insurance policy."

"If Bruce is on a ledge, I can talk him down," Natasha answered with complete certainty. "I am literally the only person on the planet who can make him change back."

"I believe you," Stark assured her. "But the smart play is to always have backup. Let me make sure you have backup. Even if you know you don't need it." He paused. "Fury's right. Something's different here," he pleaded, with a note of caution. "Something isn't right. And we don't know what that is yet. So let me do this for you. For my peace of mind, if nothing else, Natasha. Please."

Natasha regarded the older man for a long moment, considering. In all the time she'd known him, Tony Stark had never once emphasized any request with the word "please". He was genuinely worried for her safety and trying to help, the best way he knew how.

"Okay," she relented. "Go. Get Veronica ready. Just in case."

Stark nodded gratefully. "One other thing. Veronica can't function as a drone. She has an onboard AI, but she needs an operator. Someone actually has to be in the suit. I'll reconfigure her protocols to identify you as the primary user, and designate everyone on your team as authorized backup users."

Natasha nodded her assent, but she was still certain she could control the situation. "Thanks, Tony. But we won't need her."

"I'm praying you don't," Stark answered grimly.

* * *

As they made their way to the elevator, Maria took Sharon by the elbow. "Before we gear up, let's stop by the garage for a minute," she said. "There's a small detail we need to take care of."

They entered the garage a few moments later, and Maria quickly crossed the wide open floor to where one of the dark red Sandies was parked. Sharon followed, a puzzled look on her face. Maria opened the driver's side door.

"Have a seat," she invited Sharon.

Still not understanding, Sharon slid into the driver's seat and looked up at Maria expectantly. Maria leaned into the cockpit.

"Sandy, this is Black Widows Executive Officer Maria Hill. Please scan the current occupant in the driver's seat and identify her as Sharon Carter. Give her unrestricted access to all vehicles and secured facilities."

She smiled apologetically at Sharon. "Sorry. Tony only just got Sandy up and running for the HQ. Your retinal scan gets you into the building. But this is still the quickest way to get you into the system."

"No problem," Sharon answered, relieved to have an explanation.

The central screen lit up and glowed softly.

"Carter, Sharon," Sandy responded. "Previous assignment: special agent for the Central Intelligence Agency. Rank and professional details, classified. Current assignment: probationary field agent for Black Widows. Full user access confirmed."

"Probationary?" Sharon exclaimed indignantly. "What does she mean, 'probationary'?"

"Don't mind what Sandy says," Maria answered soothingly. "Trust me. You're in."

At that moment, one of the garage doors opened, and the original Sandy glided into the parking space across from them.

"Well, well," Maria grinned, straightening up. "The rookie returns."

As soon as the car came to a stop, Wanda Maximoff exited and hurried over to them.

"Is it true?" She asked breathlessly. "You guys really found Doctor Banner?"

"We found someone big, green and capable of pounding cars into tin foil with one fist," Maria deadpanned. "You can draw your own conclusions."

"Colonel Fury thinks it isn't Banner," Sharon added, and then quickly corrected herself. "Sorry. I meant, Nick."

"So, we don't know for sure?" Wanda looked to each of her teammates in turn. "Then what do we do?"

"We gear up," Maria answered. "And then we join Sam upstairs. He needs our help finding out where our mystery Hulk is doing his demolition work. Once we know the where, we can go get some real answers."

As the three women began to walk towards the women's locker room, Maria turned to Sharon.

"I realize you've had all of an hour and a half to think about this, but have you come up with your field alias yet?" she asked. "We could be heading out into the field any minute now."

Sharon sighed. "Not really. I was thinking, I really like Sam's alias, 'Falcon'. It might be fun to have an alias that ties in with that - another bird, maybe, or anything to do with flight in general. I haven't had a chance to think up any actual names yet, though."

"We could call you 'Goldfinch'," Wanda suggested. "You _are_ the only blonde on the team."

Sharon made a face. "Why do I need a permanent field alias, anyway?" she complained, putting her hand on the palm reader next to the locker room door.

Maria looked at her with some surprise. "You're ex-CIA," she objected. "I thought you'd be all about the aliases. Don't you guys use them all the time?"

"Sure, of course we do, but the alias is only good for the length of the op," Sharon answered. "Even a deep cover alias is retired permanently, once the op is completed."

"If you want to keep with the bird theme, you could be 'Little Wing', or 'White Dove," Wanda was still spitballing name suggestions as they entered the locker room. "And Maria could be, uhh, 'Raven' - or 'Blackbird'. Because she has such beautiful dark hair."

Maria suppressed a smile as she opened her locker.

Sharon grunted with disgust as she sat down on one of the benches. "Do we really have to do this _now?"_ she pleaded.

"We could table the whole thing, and just go with Whiskey Tango Foxtrot One, Two and Three," Maria grinned.

"I give up!" Sharon groaned. "All right! Enough! Fine! 'White Dove' is fine."

"Relax, _palomita_. We're not having the alias tattooed into your forehead. You can always change it later, if you come up with something you like better."

"How about you, Maria?" Wanda giggled. "We still need an alias for you."

"What you suggested sounds good to me," Maria answered with equanimity. "I kind of like 'Blackbird'."

"Blackbird? Really?" Sharon made another face. "It's kind of an ugly bird."

"True," Maria agreed, "But it is one beautiful airplane."

"There's an airplane called Blackbird?" Wanda frowned in puzzlement.

"Oh, Wanda, Wanda, Wanda," Maria sighed dramatically. "My sweet, innocent rookie. There is so much, _so_ much, I simply cannot wait to show you."

* * *

"Talk to me, Sam," Natasha ordered tersely as she strode into the situation room.

Sam Wilson, now dressed out in his Falcon uniform save for his flight harness and goggles, looked up from the computer station where he had been working.

"I found our Hulk smasher, boss. But I don't think you're gonna like it."

"Surprise me," Natasha answered sourly.

"There wasn't much information from the video, but going by the makes and models of the vehicles, I could pinpoint a general region. I had Sandy do a search for any news or social media postings similar to the damage we saw in that area..."

"Cut to the chase, Sam," Natasha cut him off.

Sam just smiled tolerantly and pulled up a digital map. He pointed to a spot.

"That's where we need to look for our mystery man," he said.

Natasha stared at the location that Sam had identified. She frowned. "Sam, that's in the middle of Central America," she objected. "And not exactly close to any major population center, either."

"True. But there are three smaller cities nearby, all with reports of similar types of damages," Sam replied. "And most of those news articles or media posts were scrubbed. But not all of them."

"Then why aren't we going to the other sites, instead of someplace that's in the middle of nowhere?"

"Because there's a major security installation out there, some sort of deep shadow setup. Highest security, need to know only among the top brass. The only reason we even know it existed is because the security organization to which this base belonged has now been shut down."

Natasha's mouth fell open. "You mean to say it's..."

"It belongs to S.H.I.E.L.D., Natasha," Sam answered grimly. "What you're looking at is the location of a former S.H.I.E.L.D. black ops site."


	4. Chapter 4

Natasha slammed a sheaf of papers and printed photos on the conference room table in front of Nick Fury.

"You want to explain this to me?" she demanded angrily.

Fury did not look down at photos. Instead, he fixed Natasha in his gaze with his one unblinking eye.

"Explain what?" he answered calmly.

"You _knew,"_ she seethed. "You knew what that film was, the moment you saw it. And you sat there, through our entire briefing, pretending you had no idea what was going on."

Maria Hill hurried into the room, and quietly closed the door behind her. Natasha stood next to Fury, trembling with cold rage.

After a long moment, Fury took his eye off Natasha and picked up the first photo on the top of the pile. It was an aerial surveillance photo, with GPS coordinates printed in red beneath the image. He suddenly realized what he was looking at, and groaned with dismay.

"Oh, God damn it," he swore in a soft murmur.

"You held out on me, Nick," Natasha said accusingly. "You held out on me, just like you held out on Steve, just like you held out on -"

"Hey!" Fury barked sharply. "Did you come here to get some answers? Or would you rather just stand there and bitch about how you weren't personally looped on every confidential S.H.I.E.L.D. op that took place above your pay grade?"

He immediately regretted his harsh words and gave her a placating look.

"I'm sorry, Natasha," he apologized contritely. "That was out of line."

Natasha was momentarily speechless with anger. Maria reached across the table, picked up the first photograph, and instantly recognized it.

"Nick, is this where we're going to find Bruce Banner?" she asked, in a far gentler tone than her red-headed colleague.

"I don't know, Maria, and that's the truth." All the life seemed to have gone out of Fury's voice. "Why don't the two of you sit down. Please," he added.

After a moment's hesitation, both Maria and Natasha seated themselves in the chairs closest to them.

Fury sighed deeply. "No, Natasha, I did _not_ know what was going on," he protested. "I had my suspicions, but that was all. And I didn't make the connection between the video and this op, until you put this photo in front of me."

"This was the old CA2 site, wasn't it?" Maria sought to confirm.

"Yes, Maria, it was."

"Nick, anything you could tell us would be helpful."

"I'll tell you all I know. And that's a promise."

He settled himself in his chair and sighed again. "The CA2 facility got started a few months before the Avengers Initiative was activated," he began. "The purpose of the facility was to further the SSS research first conducted by Dr. Abraham Erskine, and, later, the work of Dr. Bruce Banner, with regard to human cell mutation by gamma radiation. The mission of the researchers was to find a way to reliably duplicate the results seen with Steve Rogers and Dr. Banner on larger groups of test subjects."

"Oh, my God," Maria breathed. "You were trying to create super-soldiers."

"Second-biggest arms race there is," Fury noted sadly.

Natasha was still seething with rage. "And you allowed it."

"Not only did I allow it, I had the full backing of the United States government, and complete cooperation from all branches of the military," Fury answered calmly. "The top brass were far more keen to see a breakthrough in this field, than they were for success with any other type of conventional weaponry. They didn't want just one Captain America. They wanted a whole corps' worth of him."

"But that facility was entirely shut down, long before I joined you," Maria frowned. "What went wrong?"

"The CA2 project failed because, frankly, what the scientists were trying to achieve can't be done. The goal is literally impossible." Fury picked up one of the photographs scattered on the table, stared at it for a moment, and let it slip from his fingers with a resigned sigh. "The researchers were trying to find some way to take a normal, healthy human body at the first stage of adulthood - someone in, say, their early 20s - and completely transform them into something else. Rework their chemical makeup. Accelerate their cellular growth. Enhance their intellects, physical strength, visual acuity, reaction times, the mass of their bodies. And on and on. And what they found, over and over, is that it doesn't work. The chances of someone like a Steve Rogers or a Bruce Banner surviving a sudden, total transformation of their physical bodies is literally one in millions. There was no feasible or practical way to make such a transformation safe and reliable for large groups of soldiers."

"So, the project was terminated?"

"This particular project was. But the long-term work was never abandoned. The United States is one of at least six nations that is still actively involved in military research with the express aim of creating super-soldiers. The only difference now is, that research is carried out under the aegis of the DoD, and they're trying to do everything from scratch. Literally trying to grow soldiers in test tubes and decant them in bottles."

"That's obscene," Natasha declared angrily.

"It's war," Fury shrugged indifferently.

"So, assuming that project was completely shut down, and all research materials turned over to the US government... what happened then?" Maria asked. "Are they still using the site?"

"I don't know for certain. But my guess would be, no. Any ongoing project like this would now be conducted within a nation's sovereign borders. The risk of carrying out such research outside the country is just too great. And the site itself had become a... liability."

"You mean, the local government wasn't too thrilled about having a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility inside their borders."

"The organization was never the problem. The work was. Not everyone wants to be in the business of war," Fury pointed out. "And the DoD was pushing very hard to bring all research in house, meaning, inside US borders, with only previously vetted military contractors."

"And so both sides got what they wanted."

"The only reason S.H.I.E.L.D. was even using that site at the time was because we had a presence all over the world, and this was one of the most remote areas where we had a facility. The enemy can't easily spy on someplace they can't easily reach. Improvements in satellite technology have rendered that advantage useless, of course."

"So, if S.H.I.E.L.D.'s not there, and the US military isn't there, then who is?" Maria asked.

"It could be a HYDRA cell," Fury opined. "We know that they had successfully infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., so it's possible they have copies of Erskine's and Banner's research. Or it could be the work of some rogue terrorist group. But there's also a chance it might be the legitimate defense operation of some nation's military." He paused. "There is still the remotest possibility that it's just Banner, having himself an off day in some far-flung corner of the world. But frankly, I'm not betting my money on that."

Maria frowned. "And since when was Banner working for S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"He was given a lab, and told to find himself a cure," Fury answered. "And there was an entire division of doctors and research specialists standing by, ready to reverse-engineer any results he might achieve."

"You used him," Natasha said accusingly.

"Hell. I was hoping he _would_ find a cure," Fury protested. "Banner could have his life back, and the military could have that magic serum they've spent decades searching for. It could have been a win-win for everybody. But so few things ever turn out the way we hope," he concluded sadly. "Banner never had a chance to anything more than complete some preliminary research before he dropped out of sight. Someone might be trying to carry on his work, though."

"Looks like someone succeeded," Maria said grimly.

"Our people were nowhere close to a breakthrough," Fury insisted. "Whatever work S.H.I.E.L.D. did on this project, Erskine's or Banner's, it was a dead end. They had nothing that could produce another Captain America - or another Hulk. Not even as a one-off."

Natasha's rage began to cool, slightly. "So, this is a dead op."

"Dead and buried, as far as S.H.I.E.L.D. is concerned," Fury nodded. "But as I said, there were no shortage of players wanting to pick up that ball after we dropped it."

Natasha mulled that over. "Why couldn't you tell me this?" she asked finally. "Why couldn't you have said something earlier?"

"What could I have said to you, Natasha?" Fury countered. "We still don't know for certain what we're dealing with. The only connection we have between this Hulk wannabe and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s old research is a vague suspicion. That's not enough to go on."

"No. But the circumstantial evidence seems pretty damning to me."

Maria tossed a glance over to Natasha. "There's only one way to know for certain. Put boots on the ground, and get some answers."

Natasha nodded slowly. "Agreed." She looked back at Fury, still trying to assuage some ill-defined sense of betrayal.

"Go," Fury said simply. "Go do what you need to do. If you do find Banner, sing him a lullaby and bring him home. If you find just another bunch of idiot bad guys trying to take over the world, then kick their worthless asses, and be sure to give 'em one extra kick from me."

Natasha nodded again. Her expression finally softened, and while it was not quite a smile, at least it was no longer an enraged glare. The two of them did need to have a long talk - but it needed to wait until her emotions had cooled down enough to avoid more angry words, recriminations and bitterness.

"This discussion isn't over, Nick," she said quietly. "We'll finish it when I get back."

"I'll be here," Fury promised solemnly.

As they stepped out into the hallway and walked towards the elevator, Natasha turned to Maria.

"Maria, I need a favor."

"Sure. Anything."

"I want you to lead the away team."

"You want me to take full charge of the op?" Maria seemed surprised.

"Yeah." Natasha hesitated. "I think... I might be a little too close to this one," she admitted after an awkward pause. "I'm not sure I trust my own judgment right now."

"Do want to sit this one out?"

"No, no, I'm coming with you," Natasha confirmed. "But... it might be better if a cooler head was calling the shots."

Maria regarded her friend with concern. "Are you sure that's what you want?"

"There's no one I trust more than you," Natasha managed a weak smile. "To make sure I color inside the lines."

"Okay. Sure. I can lead the away team."

Natasha sighed with relief. "Thank you."

Maria paused for a moment, and then added with a completely straight face, "You do realize, if you screw this assignment up, I'm gonna bust you all the way down to probationary field agent."

Natasha stared at Maria incredulously for a moment, and then burst out laughing.

"You're a good friend, Maria," she declared, as they stepped into the elevator.

As Natasha and Maria entered the garage a few moments later, Sam, Sharon and Wanda were standing near one of the Sandies, and looked over at their team leaders expectantly.

"Okay, everyone. Saddle up," Maria announced as she strode across the still mostly empty garage. "Grab anything you need, and get your gear stowed. Sam, you're with me in Sandy One. Sharon, Wanda, you ride with Natasha in Sandy Two. Let's move it, people. We're in the air in three minutes."

As everyone hurried away to complete their last minute tasks, Natasha shot Maria a puzzled look. "You want to take both Sandies?"

"Yeah." For the briefest moment, Maria's eyes flickered downward to stare at her boots. Then she gave her friend a shy smile. "Look. I really have no idea how this is going to play out," she admitted in a quiet voice. "But on the off chance we do find Bruce, then... I wanted the two of you to have the option of some privacy on the way home. You know. Without the entire team staring at you, pretending they can't see or hear anything."

Natasha's mouth fell open in surprise. She started to protest, then thought better of it, and simply replied with a grateful, "Thank you."

"You have to promise me one thing," Maria added.

"What's that?"

"If you and Banner decide to disappear for a while, that's fine." An almost wistful look crossed Maria's face. "Just promise me you'll come back."

Natasha's face broke out into a wide smile. "I promise," she vowed emphatically.

Maria smiled back, and the relief on her face was obvious. "Okay," she said. "Let's go save the world... partner."


	5. Chapter 5

The Sandies made impressive time reaching the western slopes of the Talamancans, despite the considerable distance involved. However, shortly after the two aircraft flew in over the Caribbean Sea, a large and expansive storm system moved in from the southeast. While not especially strong, the storm did limit visibility severely, and also created some treacherous wind shear.

"Sorry, everyone," Sandy apologized, after hitting the second straight downdraft. "You might want to hold onto your stomachs. The atmospheric disturbance is only going to get worse as we fly over the mountains."

"Understood, thanks, Sandy." Maria turned to Sam Wilson. "Carsick yet?" she grinned.

Sam snorted derisively. After spending several years in Pararescue, he was not easily disturbed by abrupt changes in either altitude or air pressure. "Please. I've been on roller coasters at Disneyland that are worse than this."

Maria's grin widened as she touched the ship-to-ship intercom. "Sandy One to Sandy Two, do you copy?"

"Sandy Two," Natasha's voice came back. "We read you loud and clear."

"How you guys doing back there?"

"Wanda's turning a little green," Natasha answered, with an amused lilt in her voice. "Not Hulk green yet. But she's getting there."

"Well, hang on tight. We have about fifteen minutes of flight time left, but it's going to be a bumpy ride."

"Understood. Are we going to have any visibility on the ground?"

"Not much," Maria sighed. "Radar indicates the storm is moving inland with us. But let's count our blessings. The bad weather should provide us with some decent cover."

"Agreed."

"You might want to put Sandy Two on autopilot, tailing me. She can follow us in and hopefully make the ride a little smoother."

"Copy that. Let's maintain radio silence until after we've landed," Natasha suggested. "Just in case there are any big ears listening out there."

"Agreed. Sam and I will come to you following touchdown," Maria answered. "Stay warm and dry inside for as long as you can."

"Copy. Sandy Two out."

"How come _we're_ the ones who get to tramp through the rain and mud?" Sam complained.

Maria grinned again. "Because Natasha has two rookies with her, each with very limited field experience, and we need to help them put their galoshes on," she joked. "You'd better get ready to play Mother Hen, Sam."

Sam smiled. "I'm sure Sharon and Wanda can take care of themselves."

"I'm sure they can too. But I'll breathe a lot easier if we pair each of them off with a more experienced field agent." She gave him a bright smile. "Feel like babysitting today?"

Sam chuckled softly, but then his expression sobered. "So, how bad is it?"

"How bad is what?"

"Maria. Come on. You've barely said two words this whole flight. And Natasha's only checked in with us twice. My guess is, she's really freaking out about Banner. I know I would be, if I were in her place."

As Maria shifted her weight in her seat uneasily, Sam added quickly, "Look. I'm not asking you to share anything that's none of my business. I'm just asking, what can I do to help."

Maria gave him a grateful smile. "Believe me, Sam, if I need any help on this op, you're going to be the first person I ask."

The approach to the clearing wasn't as bad as expected, although there were a few impressively steep jolts coming down the western slope of the mountain range. As Sandy One came to a stop, neither Sam nor Maria could see more than a few meters ahead. There were brief glimpses of a few dense swathes of tall alpine grass bending in the wind gusts immediately in front of the car, but that was all. Everything beyond was swallowed up in dark clouds, and the view out the front windscreen rippled and distorted under the undulating rain squalls. Although it was only late afternoon, the storm was more or less on top of them, creating near-nighttime visibility outside. The heavy rain created a dull seashell roar on Sandy's roof.

"Sandy, kill all exterior and interior lights, please," Maria requested. The cabin was plunged into near-total darkness. Only the central display next to the driver's seat remained lit, its soft glow dimming to compensate for the lack of ambient light.

"Outside temperature 23 c, heavy rain and fog, winds from the southeast at 5 kph, gusting to 18 kph, barometric pressure falling," Maria said aloud, checking the readout. "Altitude, 3800 meters. Hope you're in good enough shape to do some mountain hiking, Sam."

"You just try to keep up with me," Sam retorted.

Maria grinned. "Sandy Two just touched down sixteen meters off our six. Distance to the facility itself is..." she did a quick calculation. "Just under three clicks off our ten o'clock. Looks like it's fairly flat in the immediate area. No big hills to climb, and no major obstructions between us and the facility. That's something, I guess."

"Maria, my power reserves are just above thresholds to ensure safe return," Sandy cautioned. "And solar power collection is of minimal use in current weather conditions."

"Understood, Sandy. After Sam and I exit the vehicle, go ahead and power everything down except for sentry mode and reactivation signal."

"Wilco."

"And before you go dark, please transfer all data received from Director Fury over to Sandy Two."

"Already done."

"You're a lifesaver. Please feel free to take a nap. We'll be back as soon as we can."

"All systems will shut down after you exit," Sandy confirmed. There was a brief pause. "Sam, Maria, please be careful."

"Thanks, Sandy. You too."

It was only a few short steps between the vehicles, but as soon as Sam and Maria stepped outside, they realized it wasn't just raining - because of the altitude, they were actually standing inside the rain cloud itself. Although their combat suits carried a layer of weatherproofing, by the time they reached the other car, they were soaked to the skin. They slipped into the back seat of Sandy Two, water pouring off their drenched bodies.

Natasha turned slightly in the driver's seat to look at them. "What'd you do, go for a swim?"

"Just about," Maria nodded. "Sorry about dripping on the carpet."

She looked over at Wanda, who was leaning against the car door, with a distinctly queasy look on her face.

"Hey, you okay?" she asked with concern.

"She's just airsick," Sharon answered for her stricken teammate. "We popped her a Dramamine tablet about twenty minutes ago. But her stomach is still doing backflips."

"Ohh. Yikes." Maria grimaced in sympathetic pain. "Shake it off, rookie. We haven't even begun to make your day miserable yet." She turned to Natasha. "Do you have the schematics that Nick sent us?"

"Yup, and they are coming up right... now," Natasha confirmed, as the front display lit up. "Along with current heat signature activity, superimposed over the grid."

Maria reviewed the screen display intently and made a face. "This is weird," she complained.

"What is?"

"The heat signatures. They're reading much higher than normal. Maybe the calibration's off."

"Do we have an accurate read on the number of hostiles?" Sam asked.

"Looks like we do, about fifty in all. But they're all over the place." Maria pointed to one cluster near the center of the screen. "There appears to be about a dozen people right in the very center of the complex. But everyone else is isolated, scattered individually around the complex, and as near as I can tell from this, regularly spaced about three to four meters apart. But none of them are near an entrance, or anything that we would consider an access point. And nobody's moving."

"You think if it was a security force, they would be more evenly spread out? Nearer the entrances?"

"They have to be guards," Maria shrugged helplessly. "Why else would anyone hold a position? Even a technician, whatever their job is, would be moving around a little."

Sam snorted in amusement. "You obviously don't know a whole lot of tech guys."

When Maria gave him a questioning look, he added, "Hey, come on. Regularly spaced, three to four meters apart? It's gotta be office cubicles, right? And the tech dudes are all sitting there, staring at their monitors, squeezing their stress toys, knocking back 48 ounce sodas and inhaling huge bags of corn chips."

Natasha bit on her lip to conceal her amusement. "Any energy signatures from other equipment?" she asked.

Maria shook her head. "From the looks of this, only right in the center of the complex."

Natasha sat back for a moment, considering. "So... there are two main corridors, one on either side, both running the full length of the building... and not one single person stationed at the entrances, or along those corridors. This is just weird."

"Security could be automated," Sharon suggested. "I doubt they get a lot of visitors out here."

"That's true enough." Natasha conceded, and glanced back at Maria. "Only one thing for it," she sighed. "We need to go have a look for ourselves."

"Should we go in together?" Maria asked. "I mean, the whole team."

Natasha gave that some thought. "We could do a recon first, but that could burn another twenty minutes," she said, musing aloud. "It's just one building, approximately 120 meters long. Entrances at the far ends. No signs of weapons or security. Any chance S.H.I.E.L.D. would have left any ordnance behind? Any nasty surprises that could be waiting for us?"

"None from S.H.I.E.L.D.," Maria shook her head. "They would have followed US military policy. Weapons and ammunition would have been stored well away from any buildings where people were living or working. I don't see any other outbuildings."

Maria and Natasha exchanged a long, deliberating look with one another.

"I say we risk it," Natasha said finally. "We're certainly not going to learn anything sitting out here."

"Agreed," Maria nodded. "Let's split into two teams, so we can cover both entrances."

"Can I go with Natasha?" Wanda asked.

Maria noted with relief that the youngest member of the team was now sitting up attentively, and looking considerably less pale. "You're sure you're good to go?"

"Yeah. Sure I am," Wanda bobbed her head emphatically. "Absolutely."

"Okay, then. You and Natasha can take the west entrance. Sam, Sharon and I can take the east. As long as we don't take fire, or encounter other resistance, we'll meet in that central area."

Maria made the briefest eye contact with Natasha, who nodded her wordless approval of the arrangement.

"We should designate a duress code word," Sharon suggested. "You know, in case we run into trouble, or need to fall back to the Sandies for any reason."

"That's a great idea, Sharon. Any suggestions?"

"How about, 'Tony'?" Sam suggested with a completely straight face. "As in, Tony Stark."

Maria snorted involuntarily with laughter. "Are you serious?"

"Why not? Dude is the absolute definition of duress, as far as I'm concerned."

"As tempting as that is," Natasha chuckled, "Let's stick with something a little more traditional. How about, 'ten oh oh.' From the old police radio dispatch calls. Widow down, in need of assistance."

"Ten oh oh," Wanda repeated experimentally. "That sounds okay."

"And how about, 'code blue', in case the whole team needs to fall back," Sharon suggested.

Maria nodded, thinking back to when she and Natasha had first vetted Sharon, and they had learned with surprise that Sharon didn't just pose as a nurse when working undercover for the CIA - she actually was an RN.

"Sounds good. Ten oh oh if you need help, code blue means everyone falls back to the Sandies."

"Are we going in radios silent?" Sam asked.

Maria thought that over for a moment. "No, let's keep coms open. But no unnecessary chatter. Okay. Final checks, everyone."

Despite the relatively cramped conditions inside Sandy's cabin, the team completed a last check of their sidearms and repulsor cannons, and, in Natasha's case, her wrist gauntlets bristling with widow stings. The rain outside the car was now coming down in sheets, and visibility was nearly nil. By unspoken agreement, everyone put on their night vision goggles. Maria took one last check of the radar. The storm was too disorganized to have an eye, but the core of the storm, with the heaviest rains and winds, would be passing directly over their position in approximately fifteen minutes.

"Sidearms holstered until we get inside the building," Maria suggested, and no one objected.

"I'll take point?" Natasha volunteered, and Maria nodded, the understanding between them being that one of them would always lead, while the other acted as rearguard.

"Okay, people," Maria sighed grimly. "Let's go play Find-A-Hulk in the pouring rain."

As soon as the team had exited the vehicle, Sandy Two shut herself down. The rain soaked everyone through to the skin instantly. All the combat suits had thermal layers to prevent the wearer from catching a chill, but the weatherproofing was of little use in a downpour like this. They made their way interminably slowly through the tall grass, having to pay special attention to the treacherous footing underneath. After what seemed like an eternity, the building finally rose up in front of them, a dark silhouette against a barely-lighter sky. There were no exterior lights, and, Natasha noted with surprise, no external security cameras - or at least none that they could see. There was no grass around the structure, and heavy wet mud was quickly caking itself to the Widows' boots.

Maria signaled that the team should split up and make their way to the two entrances at opposite sides of the building. Natasha nodded silently, and she and Wanda hugged the wall as they slowly and cautiously worked their way towards the west end. Once they reached the corner of the building, Natasha quickly peeked around, and immediately pulled her head back.

"Guard?" Wanda whispered. She had to be right up next to Natasha's ear to be overheard in the tumultuous downpour.

"Security camera," Natasha whispered back.

Wanda upturned one palm, and let a flicker of mystical ruby-red energy flash between her fingertips. The gesture was a wordless question to Natasha, asking if Wanda should take out the camera. Natasha nodded, and pointed upward, indicating that the camera was up higher, likely positioned over a door. Wanda nodded in her turn, indicating her understanding. She took the position by the corner, leaned outwards and marked the camera's position. A flash of ruby-red energy shot from her fingertips, like a lightning strike in miniature. The camera forcibly wrenched itself out of position, its lens now pointing directly and uselessly upward into the storm-battered sky.

Wanda looked back at Natasha, and nodded silently that the job was done. Natasha smiled in the near darkness to indicate her approval. They both knew there was a good chance that disabling the camera would not go unnoticed, but that couldn't be helped. They hurried to the doorway.

The door itself was a common enough type, all steel, with one small window inset just above the door handle. A ten-key touchpad was mounted on the wall next to the lock. Natasha quickly peered inside. All she could see was a long, brightly lit corridor - and no movement whatever within.

She nodded to Wanda. The younger woman placed her hand on the door handle, and a diffuse glow of ruby-red light was barely visible underneath her palm as she forced the lock. A moment later, she tugged gently on the door, and it opened a crack.

Natasha grabbed Wanda's hand, pointing first to her own eyes, then to the ceiling, indicating she wanted Wanda to immediately disable any interior security cameras, should there be any. Wanda nodded, and pulled the door towards her. It swung open silently. There was another security camera just inside the entryway, and Wanda dealt with it as easily as the first. They stepped inside and closed the door behind them. The entire building was utterly silent. No sound, no movement, and fortunately, no alarm klaxons, either. Natasha doubted very much that their forced entry had gone unnoticed, but so far, there was no reaction whatever. The only sound they could hear was their own labored breathing, and the cold rainwater dripping off their soaked uniforms, making small, slowly widening puddles underneath them.

Natasha drew her sidearm and flipped the safety off. She tilted her head slightly, indicating to Wanda that she should stay behind her. Wanda was only too happy to take up the shadow position, very nearly clinging to Natasha's back.

They proceeded slowly along the silent corridor, and after they had advanced a few meters, they came to a side corridor. Natasha quickly checked in both directions. Like the main corridor, the smaller crossway was brightly lit - and completely deserted. It did, however, appear to branch off at the far ends, leading perhaps to other aisles or rooms.

Wanda gestured silently whether they should split up to check the ends of the corridors. Natasha thought for a moment, then nodded. She pulled Wanda close.

"Just check around the corner. As far as you can without being seen. Meet me back here. Two minutes," she whispered.

"Right," Wanda whispered back.

They each cautiously proceeded down the corridor in opposite directions. Wanda reached the terminus, and peeked around the corner. Another long aisle presented itself, but this time there were several doors and recessed open areas visible to her. She still could hear nothing except the water slowly dripping off her uniform, but she could both hear and feel her heartbeat thundering in her eardrums.

She advanced slowly to the first recessed area on her right. It was a strange arrangement, bare of any furnishings save for an oversized cot, a sink with a shaving mirror, and a toilet. It looked for all the world like a jail cell, except there were no bars across the front. And the cell had a male occupant. He stood with his back turned to her, at least 250 cm in height, with a massive, muscular frame dressed in what appeared to be a dark tank top of some lightweight stretch fabric, oversized battle fatigues and boots. His skin, where it was visible, had a bright greenish cast to it.

Wanda could not help gasping with surprise. The man froze as he heard her soft intake of breath but did not turn around.

Wanda's mind was racing. She had no idea why he was here, what he was doing, or why he was dressed so strangely, but she knew of only one person who looked like this. It had to be none other than Doctor Bruce Banner.

"Doctor Banner?" Wanda called out softly in a quavering voice. "It's... me. Wanda Maximoff." She paused. "The Scarlet Witch."

The figure did not turn around, but even in the dim light, Wanda could see his ears twitching. He may have been deliberately choosing not to respond, but he _was_ listening to her - intently. Wanda felt her throat tightening.

"Doctor Banner - I... I'm sorry," Wanda said hoarsely. "I know I hurt you. I did something really bad. And I want to fix it. I want to make it right."

She cautiously took a trembling step forward. The figure still had not moved - in fact, he remained frozen in his half-turned stance. But his head had shifted almost imperceptibly towards her, indicating he was still listening. Wanda hoped desperately that was a good sign.

"Natasha's here," she added in a coaxing tone. "I can bring you to her. We - we just want to take you home."

Very slowly, the figure shifted his weight, preparing to turn around. Wanda swallowed hard.

"D-Doctor Banner?"

The figure turned, facing Wanda. All the color drained from the young woman's face, and her eyes went wide with fear. Although the creature before her had all the aspects of the Hulk, with the same accelerated musculature and greenish cast to the skin, one look at the face made it obvious - this was not Bruce Banner. It was someone or something else.

"Oh, no," Wanda whispered in horrified dismay.

With a snarl of animal rage, the Hulk-like creature lunged towards the terrified girl.


	6. Chapter 6

Wanda stumbled as the giant Hulk-like creature lunged for her. She slipped and fell backwards, landing hard on her tailbone. But the accidental fall was the only thing that saved her from being struck full in the face by a huge fist larger than her entire head. The blow landed instead on the side wall, and the entire panel crumpled and caved inwards as if made of tin foil.

The Hulk-creature reached down to grab Wanda. Shrieking in terror, she raised both hands, and struck him full in the face with the most intense energy blast she could muster. The force blast landed like an uppercut to the creature's chin, momentarily staggering him. He swung at Wanda again, blindly, and although the strike attempt was nowhere close, Wanda could still feel the air pressure from the swing reaching her face like a breeze.

Kicking out, trying to push herself away while still on her back, she raised one hand and continued to send force blasts towards the creature's upper body and head. Most of the blows were direct hits, and none of them seemed to do anything more than annoy him.

Frantically, Wanda used her power to fling solid objects at the creature as makeshift projectiles: part of a broken wall panel, a cot, a toilet seat, the toilet itself, a broken-off I-beam that had been part of the ruined wall's structural support, which Wanda wrapped around the creature's head like a scarf - all of this did nothing but slow him down for the briefest of moments.

He lunged for her again, and this time Wanda blasted herself into the air, sailing over the creature's head and landing in an undignified heap behind him. The Hulk-creature turned, and the surprise was evident on his face. He clearly had no idea she could fly. He stood still for a moment, regarding her carefully, thoughtfully, and that calculating look terrified Wanda more than anything else.

"Ten oh oh!" She screamed into her intercom. "Ten oh OH! TonytonytonytonyTONEEEEEY!"

The creature lunged for her again, this time charging her in a low crouch; Wanda decided to risk flying past him again, and propelled herself into the air. He seemed to have anticipated her reaction. As she soared upwards, he simply tore a panel off the wall and struck her with it, swatting at her like a tennis ball. The panel was not made of any heavy material, but Wanda was hit with full force; white sparks flashed across her eyes and she slammed against the floor, hard. She knew she was in terrible trouble, but she was momentarily blinded, ears ringing, her entire body throbbing with pain. She could only try to desperately drag herself across the floor. She could feel more than hear the creature's footsteps coming up behind her, closing in for the kill.

Wanda heard a loud shriek just ahead of her, and looked up to see Sharon Carter sprinting towards her, then vaulting over her, a long metal rod in one hand. Wanda managed to push herself up on one elbow - a shooting pain told her it was probably sprained or even broken - and looked behind her. Sharon was literally sailing through the air, swinging the metal rod like a baseball bat - it looked like an overly large crowbar - and smacked it right across the bridge of the creature's nose. The blow didn't appear to harm the creature terribly, but still he staggered backwards, a hand raised to his face, eyes watering. He swung out, blindly, and Sharon, yelping with alarm, back-flipped herself out of harm's way. She scrambled to Wanda's side and pulled the injured girl to her feet. She half-carried, half-dragged her injured teammate down the corridor, and into a darkened room that had a door. She closed the door as quietly as she could and then knelt down to check on Wanda. The only light coming into the room was from the windowpane set in the door, leading to the corridor outside. Sharon was careful to keep them both well away from that slender beam of light.

"Wanda, Wanda," she whispered fiercely, gently lifting the girl's head. "Can you hear me?" A bright light shone into Wanda's eyes, and she realized belatedly that Sharon was using a small flashlight to check her pupils for dilation.

"Sharon?" Wanda's head was still ringing, but she could feel Sharon's hands carefully pressing on her arms and legs, checking for broken bones. When she pressed near to Wanda's left elbow, however, the girl cried out involuntarily with pain.

"Ssh!" Sharon shushed her fiercely. "Sorry, sorry," she whispered near Wanda's ear. "Looks like you have a slight fracture. We can fix this easily, once we get out of here."

"I - I saw a Hulk," Wanda whispered back, "But it's not Doctor Banner."

"I know," Sharon whispered grimly. "They're crawling all over the building."

"There's more than ONE?" Wanda exclaimed, aghast.

"SSH!" Sharon shushed her again. She bent her lips near to Wanda's ear. "They have excellent hearing. Don't speak in anything other louder than a whisper."

Sharon was tying together a makeshift sling for Wanda's arm, using one of the sleeves torn from her own uniform.

"Who are they? Where did they come from?" Wanda was trying to shake off the grogginess from the blow she received - but she was now acutely aware of nasty pains all over her battered body, pain that would only get worse as her head cleared. "Where are the others?"

"I don't know," Sharon whispered as she gently raised Wanda's left arm, supporting it carefully while she slipped the torn fabric over the forearm. "Lower your head just a bit. That's it. There we go."

Wanda's arm was now carefully supported at the proper angle by the sling. But Sharon had already turned her attention to a nasty gash just above Wanda's right temple. The bleeding had already almost stopped on its own. It would likely leave an ugly bruise but nothing more.

Wanda was trying desperately not to think about what might have happened to Sam and Maria - and especially Natasha. They had separated only moments earlier. If they had also encountered creatures like these, had they been injured, or captured, or worse? Wanda felt an icy fist of dread closing around her heart.

"We have to call a code blue," she whispered urgently.

"Hang on," Sharon tried to calm her teammate. "Let's see if we can get in touch with the rest of the team first. Can you stand up?"

"I think so."

With Sharon helping her, Wanda made it gingerly to her feet. "Where'd you learn to run and jump like that?" she asked.

Sharon smiled shyly. "I took gymnastics in college. Don't ask me about that backflip, though. Haven't done one of those in years." She touched her intercom reluctantly. "White Dove to any Widows, come in."

There was no reply over the intercom, just ominous silence.

"White Dove to any Widows, please respond," she repeated the call anxiously, just barely keeping her voice below whisper level. Still no response.

"Maybe it's broken?" Wanda whispered.

"Try yours," Sharon whispered back. "Quietly."

Wanda touched her intercom. "Scarlet Witch to any Widows, come in?"

They both yelped in alarm as the wall next to them suddenly caved in, smashed aside by a gigantic green fist. One of the Hulks - it was impossible to tell which one - literally pushed his way through the wall. Seeing that he had found his intended targets, he calmly reached over and turned on the overhead lights from a switch on the wall.

Sharon immediately pulled her sidearm from its holster and raised it. The Hulk-creature seemed genuinely amused by the intended threat, his wide, green face twisting into an ugly smirk. He began to advance. Sharon fired, once, point-blank. The bullet tore the fabric of the shirt, but apparently did not even break the creature's skin. He snorted disdainfully.

He advanced again, and this time Sharon emptied the entire clip into his chest - to absolutely no effect. The creature reached out, almost lazily, and tore the gun out of Sharon's hands. His movement was surprisingly gentle, and Sharon realized that had he wished, the creature could have easily torn off her hand or even her entire arm.

As she watched in horrified amazement, the creature held out the weapon in the palm of his huge hand, slowly closed his fingers into a fist, and then dropped the crushed weapon onto the floor. It now resembled a large and misshapen ball bearing.

"That was my favorite Sig!" Sharon exclaimed in dismay.

The creature took another step forward, and Sharon raised her left arm, palm upward, this time brandishing the aperture of the repulsor cannon on her wrist gauntlet.

"Just hold it right there, big guy," Sharon warned him, not even sure if the creature spoke or understood English. "This is no pea-shooter. I'd hate to have to hurt you for real."

The creature stared at her for a moment, and then burst out laughing - he was actually laughing at her. He reached for her again, and Sharon fired the repulsor at full force, clipping the creature's chin. He seemed surprised by the force of the blow, but it was still nearly nothing to him. He shook his head slowly as if to say, _sorry, little girl. Better luck next time._

Wanda stepped forward, her dark eyes flashing red with mystical energy. "Stop hurting me and my friends!" she yelled.

Wanda already knew a blow to the creature's face or upper body would accomplish nothing, so instead she created a lasso of bright red mystical energy, and as the creature looked on in bewilderment, looped it around his ankles, and sent him flying face-first into the opposite wall before he could react. The creature was stuck there momentarily, trying to free himself, but it would certainly buy the time that Sharon and Wanda needed to make a hasty retreat. They scrambled out into the corridor - only to find themselves surrounded on all sides by a small platoon of Hulk soldiers, similarly dressed in quasi-military fatigues, all staring contemptuously at them.

"Ohh, no," Sharon groaned. At a glance, she counted at least a dozen hostiles, and those were just the ones she could see. Her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach.

"What do we do?" Wanda whispered.

Sharon sighed despairingly. "We surrender."

She raised her arms slowly. "It's okay, boys, we give up. We know when we're beat," she called out. "You got us. No need for things to get any uglier than you already are."

The Hulk who had been stuck in the wall re-entered the corridor, using the hole he'd torn in the wall when he first entered the room. He regarded the women with a grunt of genuine annoyance. He slowly pointed to Sharon's left arm, miming that she needed to drop the weapon onto the floor.

"Easy, boys, easy," Sharon muttered warily, as she slowly raised her right hand to her left wrist. "I'm just disarming myself. I'm going to drop my weapon. I'll do it slowly."

She detached the gauntlet and let it slide down her leg. It clattered onto the floor. The apparent captain of the Hulks indicated she needed to kick the weapon over towards him, and Sharon reluctantly complied.

He regarded the gauntlet suspiciously.

"Why don't you try crushing that into a ball?" Sharon jeered. "See if you enjoy the kickback from an exploding repulsor cannon? Even you might feel that."

The Hulk captain snorted in apparent disgust, and picked up the weapon - but Sharon noted he was careful not to damage it. Sharon allowed herself the slightest of smiles.

The captain gestured again that the women needed to remove their equipment belts. With a heavy sigh, Sharon unfastened hers first and laid it on the floor, then helped Wanda with hers. The captain seemed satisfied, and pointed with a giant hand that they should proceed out of the corridor, with the other Hulks as escort. Sharon momentarily closed her eyes, sending up a silent prayer of thanksgiving that they wouldn't be more carefully searched - not that either of them was carrying anything on their person that could possibly be used as a weapon against creatures such as these. Wanda was easily the most powerful of the Widows, and these Hulks had just shrugged off her best shots as if they were nothing.

They were marched slowly out of the corridor, and Sharon noted that they were moving towards the center of the facility.

A few moments later, they entered a large, brightly lit room, where at least another dozen Hulk soldiers stood single file at attention. Natasha, Sam and Maria were standing there as well, apparently unharmed although visibly shaken. Sam's shirt was torn and his flight harness was totally missing. All the team's equipment belts and weapons had been confiscated. Another man, of normal build and skin tone, was standing nearby, wearing a dark suit.

"And here are the rest of your colleagues," he announced unnecessarily.

There was a momentary flicker of fear in Natasha's expression, and Wanda hurried over to Natasha. "I'm okay," Wanda said breathlessly, clasping Natasha's hand. "I'm okay."

Natasha's face resumed its normal impassive mask. But she squeezed Wanda's hand tightly. She glanced over at Sharon, and Sharon nodded silently to indicate she hadn't been harmed. Natasha turned back to the man in the suit, who apparently was in charge of the whole operation.

"This is my entire team," she assured the man in a brittle voice.

With a single gesture from the man, the other Hulk soldiers also lined up, standing at attention.

The man in the suit turned slightly, to address another man who was standing just out of range of the overhead light, whose face could not clearly be seen.

"Although this was not the field test we had originally planned to conduct this evening, it still made for an effective demonstration of our organization's potential, don't you agree... General Ross?"

Natasha's jaw dropped in dismay as General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross stepped forward, out of the shadows and into the light. He was dressed in his full military uniform, and he regarded Natasha and her teammates with a deep sigh of resignation. "Yes, I would have to agree," he said gravely. "A most effective demonstration indeed."


	7. Chapter 7

"Well, this sucks," said Sam Wilson sourly.

Sam and his teammates were being detained in an improvised holding cell, with two Hulk soldiers standing on either side of the only door that led in or out of the barely furnished room. Sam and Maria were sitting side by side on a long wood bench, and Wanda was laying across the remainder of the bench at an awkward angle, keeping her broken arm elevated and using Sam's thigh as a pillow.

Sharon drew Natasha aside to the far side of the room. "Wanda's got a simple fracture on the radial head of her left elbow," she murmured close to Natasha's ear. "Obviously, we want to get her home and properly treated as soon as possible. But she's in no danger. The only immediate concern is her pain management."

The relief on Natasha's face was palpable. "Thank you, Sharon."

Sharon went over to the door to position herself as a sentry. The room in which they were being held had apparently been intended for use as an office, as the door was made of wood with a large pane window inset above the doorknob. Sharon could easily see both of the guards and a fair length of corridor while standing next to the door. Natasha walked back over to the bench and knelt down beside Wanda. She reached over and gently stroked the girl's tangled red hair. Wanda sighed and closed her eyes, trying to rest.

"What the hell is Thunderbolt Ross doing here, anyway?" Sam grumbled angrily.

"He's not alone," Maria said. "I caught a glimpse of several other men in military uniform as we were being led away. Looks like the DoD is here to purchase themselves some black market Hulk soldiers."

"Maybe," Natasha said thoughtfully. Something about that explanation didn't sit right. She had met Ross many times over the years, and while they seldom saw eye-to-eye on anything, she sensed that the man truly had the best interests of his country at heart. "Ross can be a jackass but he's not stupid. I don't think he'd ever throw in his lot with black market arms dealers, no matter how sweet the deal was."

"Why is he here, then?" Sam asked.

Natasha shook her head sadly, still stroking Wanda's hair. "I don't know."

"The really important question is, how are we going to get out of here," Maria said, keeping her voice low. There were no security cameras in the room, at least none they could see; but they had to assume they were being watched and their conversations monitored.

"Yeah, and how are we supposed to deal with a whole barracks full of Hulk soldiers," Sam added morosely.

"I'm not sure they're our problem," Maria pointed out. "We came down here to find Doctor Banner. It seems pretty obvious he's not here."

"No, I don't think so either, Maria," Natasha agreed, letting her hand rest gently on Wanda's cheek. The injured girl had relaxed enough to the point where she was starting to doze off. "And we'll need to know a lot more about this operation, before we can make a proper threat assessment."

"So, what, if the DoD have found themselves a black market Hulk army, we just walk away?" Sam asked incredulously.

"We don't know the whole story yet, Sam," Natasha said evenly. "Let's make sure we have the full picture with reliable intel. Then we can decide what really needs to be done here."

"Well, we're certainly not taking on a whole barracks full of Hulks by ourselves," Maria sighed. "Even if we had our Hulk, and Thor, and Iron Man here with us, I'm not sure we could stop these guys."

Before Natasha could reply, Sharon sang out, "We have company."

Natasha stood up, and motioned to Sam and Maria that they should remain seated. Sharon backed away from the door, and a few moments later, a young corporal entered the room, shadowed by a MP.

"Miss Romanoff? General Ross would like to meet with you privately in his office."

"He does?" Natasha was nonplussed. Ross had an office in _this_ complex?

"Go," Sam almost whispered. "Might be your best chance to get some answers."

"We'll watch Wanda," Maria added.

Nodding numbly, Natasha allowed herself to be escorted from the room. After the door closed, Sharon stationed herself once again where she could watch the corridor. Natasha was quickly led away and disappeared with her escort. But then Sharon noticed something odd happening to one of the guards.

It was a subtle movement at first, and Sharon wasn't entirely sure what she thought she saw was real. It must have been a trick of the light. But then, it happened again - a large bulge appeared on the soldier's right scapula, something that looked almost like a pustule, except it formed immediately and seemed to be possessed of independent movement. It seethed, writhed and expanded by several centimeters in a matter of seconds, and the soldier winced noticeably with pain as this happened, although he remained at attention and at his post. Then the irritation subsided, shrank down and vanished, and the shoulder looked normal again - or as normal as a shoulder could look, with the skeleton and musculature four times the size of a normal human and the skin tinted a bright green.

Sharon swallowed hard, shocked and frightened by what she saw. "Oh, my God," she murmured in dismay. "The process isn't stable."

* * *

Natasha was led into a barely-furnished room containing nothing more than a table and two chairs, facing across from one another on either side of the table. Seated in one of the chairs at the far end of the room was General "Thunderbolt" Ross, staring down at the tabletop as if tranquillized. He looked up as Natasha was escorted in.

"Natasha Romanoff, as requested, sir," the corporal announced.

"Thank you, corporal. That will be all."

"Sir." The corporal turned on his heel and left the room.

Ross stared back down at the tabletop. He did not rise to greet his visitor.

"Hello, Natasha. It's been awhile." The old man's voice seemed utterly flat and lifeless.

Natasha continued to stand just inside the door, not entirely sure she wanted to take the seat that hadn't been offered. "Almost two years to the day," she answered.

"Only two years?" Ross looked up with a weary expression on his face. "Seems longer."

He looked back down at the tabletop again, absently rubbing his withered hands together. Just about the time Natasha had decided he wasn't going to speak without being prompted, he looked up abruptly.

"You have questions," he said. "And I have questions. And I thought you might be willing to trade answers for answers."

Natasha frowned, not in puzzlement, but with genuine worry. The man seated across from her was Thunderbolt Ross. And yet he was acting nothing like the man she remembered.

He seemed to divine what she was thinking, and managed a wan smile. He waved a scarred and grizzled hand towards the empty seat.

"Won't you please sit down."

After a moment's hesitation, Natasha sat.

"How did you know we'd be here?" he asked, once she had settled herself.

"We had no idea you'd be here," Natasha answered.

"Oh." Natasha's response seemed to puzzle Ross. "Then - if I may ask, why _are_ you here?"

"We were looking for Bruce Banner."

"Ah." That seemed to resolve one mystery for the general. "That's an honest enough mistake to make, I suppose."

"Is he here?" Natasha asked hopefully.

"Who?"

"Bruce Banner."

"No. He's not here."

"Is he..." Natasha hesitated. "Do you know if he's still alive?"

"He's not here," the old man repeated, and he wasn't being evasive. The terms 'alive' and 'dead' apparently held no distinction for him any more. Natasha drew in a sharp breath. There was something horribly dead about Ross himself. Some fundamental part of his soul had been hollowed out and eaten away. She might as well have been talking to a mannequin.

 _This man has died,_ she thought lucidly. _It's only his body that hasn't stopped breathing._

"Why are _you_ here?" Natasha wasn't sure there would be any point to asking the question, but she ventured it anyway.

"You've seen the project. I would think it was obvious."

"The project? You mean, the soldiers outside. The men who are... are..." she hesitated to describe what she'd seen.

"The men who are like Banner was," Ross nodded solemnly. "Monsters."

"How could you do something like that?" Natasha's question was more of an accusation, and some of the sting seemed to cut through the gauze of Ross's mummified heart.

"Do what? Apart from trying to save the earth, you mean?" Finally, there was there some flicker of fire in those old, weary eyes. "Let me guess. You think some military brass, with ideas above their station, are out making shady deals with black market eugenics corporations to create the ultimate soldier. Does that sound about right?"

"That's close enough," Natasha admitted.

"Uh-huh." The old man's grunt was a mixture of disgust and sadness. "Nothing here is what you think it is. Every person working at this site has been vetted for work with all branches of the US military. And the men you see transformed are not lab rats. They're US marines. Every one of them, a volunteer. We are going to save the world."

"Save it from what?" Natasha asked, horrified.

Ross seemed surprised by the question. "Were you somehow not here, when half of all life on earth was extinguished?" he demanded.

"What?"

"It's a reasonable question. People like you seem to fly halfway around the galaxy the same way I would take a taxicab uptown."

"I was in Wakanda," Natasha answered, her eyes filling with tears.

"Ahh." The old man nodded gravely. "Then you can see why we need this."

"No. I certainly do _not_ see."

Ross regarded Natasha impassively. "Half of all life," he repeated. "And I don't mean just half of all the world's people. We're talking everything - every domain, every kingdom, every phylum, every class, every order, family, genus, species and subspecies - everything from the largest whale to the smallest bacteria. Half of all life. Gone. And the entity responsible _is still out there."_ The old man leaned forward in his seat. "Maybe that thought doesn't scare you. It sure as hell terrifies me."

He leaned back again, clearly sizing her up, trying to decide if she belonged in enemy combatant territory. Then he smiled, a thin, humorless smile with neither joy nor irony in it.

"The world doesn't belong to people like you and me any longer," he said at last. "Army generals and espionage agents. We belong only in history books. The fate of the world is now going to be decided by gods and monsters. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to prevent something like this from happening again. The next god that comes along could do exactly the same thing to us, out of a fit of pique, or simple boredom. And up to now, we've had no defense. And if we cannot be gods to defend ourselves, then we can certainly create the monsters who can."

Natasha's heart sank. What Ross proposed was not an arms race in any traditional sense, but it still had the same tragic trajectory.

"I suppose I could send you to one of our incarceration facilities," Ross mused. "Guantanamo, perhaps. But there would hardly be any point. To be an enemy of the state, you'd have to be a credible threat. And frankly, you're no threat to anyone, especially not to the soldiers at this facility. You and your colleagues are free to leave," he decided finally. "All except for the Maximoff girl. She stays."

Natasha's heart froze. "What do you want with Wanda?"

"She's an enhanced human. One of the few still known to exist. She is also one of the few who could give my soldiers an honest test in battle simulations. I saw what she did tonight. It was remarkable. Without any training at all, she held her own against an enhanced US marine for several minutes. Imagine what she could do with the proper training. Strucker's own documentation on creating enhanced humans was completely destroyed. Having direct access to his only surviving test subject could advance this program by decades almost overnight."

Natasha's mouth fell open in a horrified gasp. "You can't claim eminent domain here, Ross. Wanda's not a parcel of land. She's a young woman - a human being - one of the people you're supposed to be protecting!"

"Wanda Maximoff is not an American citizen, and until very recently, she was classified as an enemy of the state," Ross pointed out. "I am well within my legal and military rights to have her detained."

"So she can be used as a punching bag for your private Hulk army? It's out the question. You can't have her."

"If you truly had any care for protecting this world, you would welcome my decision."

"How can I even sanction it? Are you even _listening_ to yourself when you speak? This is madness, Ross!"

General Ross stared at Natasha for a long moment. His expression was one of abject pity. She would never understand, he was simply doing what he had to do.

"I'm not mad," he said finally. "I'm frightened. As frightened as you should be. In time, you'll understand that my decision was the correct one. And you'll still be alive to thank me for it. Corporal!" he bellowed.

The corporal returned to the office doorway. "Sir."

"Miss Romanoff and her colleagues are to be escorted off the base immediately. If they refuse to leave, incarcerate them all, with charges to be filed later. The Maximoff girl is to remain here. Detain her, in isolation, under round the clock guard."

"Sir." The corporal clicked his heels together. "Miss Romanoff?"

Natasha stared incredulously at the old man for several moments, fighting back all the emotions roiling inside of her. But Ross had made up his mind. Any further discussion would be pointless. Natasha would have to act on the only option left to her. She got up to leave. She paused in the doorway and looked back. "General Ross."

"Yes?"

"Just so you know, the only reason that you and I were even alive tonight to have this discussion is because Wanda Maximoff and her brother actually _did_ save the world - three years ago. Wanda's older brother Pietro gave his life in the fight against Ultron. And Wanda gave nearly everything else. And without the two of them, and the sacrifices they made, the world really would have ended. What you owe Wanda Maximoff is more than just your gratitude and respect. You are only breathing now, because of her. She's earned the right to be a free woman. Think about that, and think about it carefully, before you decide to enslave another living soul for your own twisted purposes."

Ross glared at Natasha for a long moment, and then angrily waved his hand at his corporal. "Get her out of my sight," he ordered.

Natasha was forcibly escorted from the office.


	8. Chapter 8

Natasha's mind raced frantically as she was escorted back to the holding cell. Her situation was beyond desperate. There was absolutely no chance of her team engaging in hand-to-hand combat with a platoon of performance-enhanced marines and prevailing. But if they were to save Wanda, they had to escape from the facility in the next few minutes, otherwise they might all remain incarcerated indefinitely.

As much as the thought galled her, Natasha realized that their only real option was to turn tail and flee for their lives. The team would have to stage a "jailbreak", and then manage to elude the hostile forces long enough to reach the Sandies. That would depend on them having an opportunity to sneak away - a slim hope at best. What if the guards entered the cell with her? Would they be left alone long enough to even make any plans? Any attempt to use the main corridors as escape routes would most likely end in failure. Access points could be easily blocked within moments. But how else could they safely navigate their way out of the facility? Would anything she remembered from Fury's schematic still apply to this base? As these thoughts and others whirled through Natasha's mind, she had to fight down a rapidly rising sense of panic.

Natasha's escort was the corporal who was aide-de-camp to General Ross, two MPs carrying standard issue rifles, and two "Hulk" soldiers. Assuming the situation in the holding area hadn't changed, there would also be two enhanced soldiers stationed at guard positions on either side of the door. Natasha hadn't been in the holding cell long enough to make certain if there were any surveillance cameras or microphones. She might not have any opportunity to give her team any warning, before any escape attempt could be made. She prayed they would all be alert and ready for action.

Even worse, the team's best hope of escape lay with Wanda, who was nursing a broken arm. How far could Natasha safely push her, to ensure their success? Natasha had been in dire straits many times before, but this time it felt markedly different. She had taken any number of questionable risks on solo missions, some of which she'd had cause to regret. But those risks were entirely on her, and she was the only one who suffered the consequences. This time, she was here with a team; and even if Maria was officially the leader of the away team, everyone's safety and well being likely depended on Natasha's decisions in the next few moments. She had led them all into this dreadful situation. Could she now safely bring them out as well?

As they reached the door to the improvised cell, the guards moved one step to the side, indicating access was granted. The corporal signaled to the MPs, and then reached over and turned the doorknob. Natasha sighed despairingly. The escort would be entering the cell with her - the worst case scenario.

The moment Natasha entered the cell, she knew her team was planning something: Maria, Sam and Sharon were all on their feet, facing the door but standing in odd locations around the room. Wanda was sitting on the bench, head lowered, but after years of seeing such tactics Natasha knew instantly that the girl was "playing possum".

As she feared, the corporal and the two MPs entered the room with her. And there were now four Hulk soldiers standing just outside the door. She looked at her team despairingly.

"Change of plan, guys," she announced, before the corporal or anyone else could speak. "Code blue."

What happened next took place in a literal split-second blur: Sam rushed forward, and pushed Natasha roughly to the ground. Wanda leapt up from the bench, and with Natasha safely out of harm's way, she sent a powerful blast of ruby-red mystical energy towards the corporal and the MPs, literally blasting them back out through the door and knocking them off their feet, as if a full pressure firehose had been turned on them. Before anyone had a chance to react, Wanda then pointed her one good arm skyward, and blasted a gaping hole in the roof. Almost instantly, rainwater from the storm outside began to pour into the cell.

"Sharon!" Sam called out. Sharon took a running leap from the far side of the room, planting her foot in Sam's outstretched hands, and he boosted her jump so that she was able to safely grab onto the edge of the damaged roof, hauling herself upwards to the outside. Natasha scrambled to her feet, grinning. The team wasn't just ready, they already had a plan in place; they were only waiting for her return before executing it.

Wanda had already thrown a force shield up along the wall, and the startled MPs had now made it to their feet. They attempted to fire in through the open doorway, and even through the walls, but Wanda's energy shield prevented any bullets from getting through. It would only be seconds before one of the Hulk soldiers made an attempt to breach Wanda's barrier, and everyone knew she would not be able to withstand that assault.

"Natasha!" Sam bellowed. Natasha followed Sharon's lead and leapt up towards Sam. He caught her foot and lifted her, giving extra acceleration to her leap. Natasha caught one edge of the roof opening, and Sharon, now outside, reached in and clasped her other hand. In seconds, Natasha was outside and on the roof.

It was pitch black outside, and the rain was coming down in a torrential downpour. Worse, the roof was apparently surfaced with corrugated tin, meaning there was no footing to be had at all. Natasha slipped twice trying to make it to her feet. She might as well been trying to stand upright on a polished ice rink in the middle of a thunderstorm.

Sharon caught Maria's hand next, and she made it out onto the roof. All three women had to cling for dear life to the sides of the hole that Wanda had made. The wet roof surface was far too slippery to provide any kind of traction, the winds were gusting strong enough to knock a person over, and there was nothing on the roof immediately near them - like a chimney or an aerial - that they could hang onto. The rain was coming down so hard they had to keep their faces turned downwards, to keep the water from rushing into their noses and mouths.

Sam came out next, propelled by a ruby-red energy blast from Wanda. Natasha caught his arm, and if she hadn't, he might have sailed clear off the edge of the building. Wanda floated up a moment later, a panicked look on her face. Natasha didn't need her to speak to understand that their pursuers were coming after them.

Sure enough, only a couple of feet away from the first hole, one of the Hulk soldiers leapt straight up, through the roof, a look of malevolent triumph on his face. His expression changed almost instantly to one of dismay as he landed - the thin roofing material simply wasn't reinforced enough to hold his falling weight, and he fell straight through, landing back inside the building. His expression of dismay as he fell was almost comical, but Natasha didn't feel like laughing. Even if the soldier had misjudged that the roof could hold him, the pursuit wasn't over, and they were far from safe.

Sure enough, moments later, bullets began whizzing by their faces from the holes punched in the roof. Everyone instantly let go of their handholds - it was all they could do to just hang on anyway - and they began to slide helplessly across the length of the roof. It was like being on a water slide, there was simply nothing to hang onto, and nothing to brace against to stop their momentum. One by one, every member of the team went sailing over the far edge of the roof, and landed in an undignified heap in the soft, thick mud immediately surrounding the building.

Natasha pushed herself up in an instant, spitting brackish mud from her mouth in disgust, and trying to wipe her face clean. Fortunately, the rain was falling so hard that she was able to wash the worst of the clinging mud off in a matter of seconds.

Alarm klaxons began to warble from somewhere inside the building, and a few spotlights came on, spaced at irregular intervals, partially lighting the grounds. Apparently outdoor lighting had not been established all the way around the perimeter - _that's got to be some kind of violation right there,_ Natasha thought to herself - but by some miracle, Natasha and her team were not directly under one of spotlights. They could see - barely - but were not exposed themselves under one of the harsh, glaring circles of light.

Everyone but Wanda had made it to their feet, covered head to toe in mud, and wiping the worst of it from their faces. Wanda was writhing in soundless agony on the ground, she had most likely landed on her injured arm again. Once Sam's vision was cleared, he knelt down to gather his injured teammate into his arms.

"I got Wanda!" He yelled, trying to make himself heard over the storm. "Go, go, GO!"

"Sandy!" Maria yelled into her intercom. "Emergency recall! Our position! NOW!"

"On my way, Maria," Sandy responded calmly, although Maria could barely hear her over the storm.

The team began to sprint away from the building as fast as they could; but the combination of wind, rain, high altitude and thick mud clinging to their boots significantly compromised their speed. Fortunately, the same was also true for their pursuers, who apparently were still scrambling to prepare for pursuit out of doors. Natasha found herself giving thanks that the physical security on site was not only minimal, but borderline negligent. _They'll be making a lot of changes to their security after this,_ she thought grimly as she stumbled along, gasping for breath as she ran.

The footing improved slightly once the team made it to the high grasses, but it was still treacherous, and Natasha could hear shouting from their pursuers somewhere behind her. She didn't dare stop to turn around and look. With even the elements against them, they weren't making much better time than taking a brisk walk.

Natasha could see the faint glow of headlights from somewhere ahead of her, and realized that the Sandies were making their way towards the compound, gliding just a few feet above ground. Drone flight in these weather conditions was nearly impossible, and the Sandies were moving fairly slowly; but the fact they could navigate at all seemed to Natasha nothing short of a minor miracle.

Once they were close enough to clearly see the Sandies, the rain refracted the cabin lights, running lights and headlamps into prisms of light, scattered and diffused over several meters surrounding the vehicles. Natasha began to feel a glimmer of hope that they might actually make their escape - and then, from out of nowhere, one of the Hulk soldiers leaped downwards out of the sky towards Sandy Two, and smashed the vehicle to the ground with a single blow from a giant green fist.

The resulting destruction was complete and total. There was literally nothing left of the car. It had been transformed in a split second from a functioning vehicle to a smoking pile of debris. The repulsor cannons were still firing, feebly, then they flickered and went out. Only one headlamp, tethered to an undamaged power source, continued to shine upwards into the rain. It was a terrifying thing to witness. Natasha glanced over at Maria, and even the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent was rattled, her mouth agape in speechless horror.

Sandy One was coming in to land only a few meters from the team, and Natasha realized they had no chance for escape if the Hulk soldier repeated his tactic. She had to keep him distracted long enough for the rest of the team to escape - which meant, without question, she would be re-captured, if not actually killed.

Without hesitation, she leaped in front of the soldier, arms raised, feet spread apart, a preliminary stance for hand-to-hand combat.

"Hey! Green and ugly!" she yelled. "Over here!"

The Hulk soldier actually drew back for a moment, utterly bemused. Did this tiny, fragile woman really think she was going to threaten _him?_ Recovering from his surprise, his face twisted into a wide grin. He spread his arms wide, exposing his upper torso, as if to say, _Okay, then, little girl. Show me what you got._

Natasha was only too happy that the soldier was smugly choosing to mock her. Out of the periphery of her eye, she could see Sharon bundling Wanda into the back seat of Sandy One. She couldn't see Maria or Sam, but prayed they were boarding as well, rather than trying to back her up in a pointless fight. The Hulk soldier was glancing over at the vehicle. Natasha had no choice but to charge him, to force him to pay attention to her. She rushed him, yelling at the top of her lungs, leaping up in mid-air and delivering a fairly impressive flying drop-kick square in the middle of the soldier's chest.

She might as well have been kicking a concrete block wall. All her blow accomplished was to send her sprawling backwards into the grass and mud. Natasha came up on her feet instantly, arms raised, but her strategy worked. The soldier was only watching her now. She rushed him again, and he simply stood his ground, allowing her to strike him in the chest and arms over and over, letting her realize just how futile her attempts were.

 _That's right, keep thinking you got me,_ Natasha thought grimly. _I win when my team gets away._

She could faintly hear the soft throbbing of the repulsor cannons from somewhere behind her, the sound almost entirely masked by the roar of rainfall. The expression on the soldier's face changed to an angry snarl as he realized he'd been duped into letting Natasha distract him. But by then, it was too late; Sandy One was arcing up and away into the stormy night sky, flying far faster and higher than the Hulk soldier could leap to chase after it.

Natasha stepped away and lifted her arms in a gesture of surrender.

"I win," she panted.

Inside Sandy One, Maria was banking the aircraft sharply in order to execute a low pass along the ground. Despite her injuries, Wanda was shrieking in terror.

"We can't just leave her!"

"We're not going to!" Maria yelled back. "Sam!"

"Working on it!" Sam shouted, frantically working to attach a drop cable to a vest harness and the other end to a safety ring just inside the cabin door.

"Work faster! Hang on, you guys!"

Maria sent Sandy One into a steep dive. Sharon and Wanda, barely used to flying in anything other than commercial aircraft, screamed with fright as the tiny aircraft nose-dived towards the ground.

Natasha gave the Hulk soldier a faint smile. "Thanks," she told him sincerely. "Thanks for playing nice."

The soldier wasn't in any mood for any gesture of goodwill. He'd been suckered and he knew it. A moment later, he raised his fist angrily. Natasha's heart nearly stopped with fear. She only had a split-second to think, _I'm dead._

Before the soldier could throw his punch, however, he grimaced with sudden pain, and then roared with fury as some sort of growth bulged obscenely out of the side of his head. It looked like a tumor, except that the tissue was writhing and twisting as if it possessed by a consciousness of its own. It was nearly the size of a basketball. Natasha could only gape wide-eyed with horror. In a moment, the growth - whatever it was - receded as quickly as it had appeared, and the soldier focused his attention again on Natasha. With a feral growl, he prepared to strike again.

Neither Natasha nor the soldier saw Sandy One in time. The aircraft came howling down on top of them, barely pulling up when only a few meters from the ground. Sam dived out of the side of the car, a harness around his chest tied to a cable. He scooped the astonished Natasha up into his arms, and just as quickly, Sandy yanked them both away.

The Hulk soldier leaped after them, but after the sudden attack, he wasn't able to calculate his jump correctly. Instead of grabbing Sandy and bringing her down, he sailed off into the darkness, skidding face-first through the mud and grass for several meters.

Maria set Sandy down just long enough for Sam to scramble back into the front passenger seat. Natasha leapt into the back with Wanda and Sharon. Then they rocketed skyward again, Sandy's engines straining at their absolute limit.

"Man, that is not nearly as much fun without wings," Sam gasped.

"You _think?!"_ Maria's voice was pitched high with fright. She turned her attention back to the console. "Sandy, are we being followed?"

"There is no sign of air pursuit, Maria."

"Okay," she exhaled sharply. That escape had been way too close for comfort. "Please calculate a path to get us clear of the storm, and then get us on the quickest route home."

"Calculating. Engaging flight plan," Sandy answered.

Maria finally had a chance to breathe, and breathe she did, inhaling deep, long breaths, filling her lungs, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. She glanced behind her. On the back seat bench, Sharon and Natasha were attending to Wanda, who was grimacing with pain but seemed to have escaped without further injury.

Assured that they were safe for the moment, Maria reached over and punched Sam rather roughly on the shoulder.

"Ow!" Sam yelped. "What the hell?!"

"Don't you _ever_ scare me like that again!" Maria scolded angrily.

Natasha looked up for a moment. "This isn't over," she warned her teammates.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but did we just attempt, and fail, to carry out an attack on a US military base?" Maria asked, still breathless.

"Sure looks that way," Natasha answered grimly. "And God only knows what the consequences of that action are going to be, when we get back home."


	9. Chapter 9

It was nearly four in the morning local time when Sandy One finally arrived at the Widows' new base of operations. Nick Fury was waiting in the garage as Sandy rolled in. The relief on his face was palpable as he saw all five team members exit wearily from the vehicle. Maria had radioed ahead that everyone was safe and well. But Fury needed to see for himself.

Sharon gathered Wanda into her arms.

"I'm going to take Wanda upstairs to the infirmary," she said to Natasha. "Take a couple of quick x-rays. Should only be a few minutes. I'll ping you as soon as I know anything definite."

Natasha smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Sharon." She turned to Sam and Maria. "I can't thank you guys enough, for what you did tonight."

"Just doing our jobs. This is our gig now," Sam shrugged, and then he frowned as a thought occurred to him. "Uhh, we are getting paid for this, right?" he joked.

"Thanks to Pepper, yes, we are," Natasha assured him with a smile. "Go home. Clean yourselves up and get some shuteye. We'll meet back here day after tomorrow, and decide what we're going to do about Ross and his big box full of monsters."

"I'm not sure we'll have to do anything," Sharon interjected, and she quickly related what she had seen while observing the guards. "Whatever Ross thinks he has, the process he's using is neither safe nor reliable," she concluded. "My guess is, if he were ever to deploy those soldiers in combat, their bodies would start to break down almost immediately."

"So that's why I saw that one react the way he did." Natasha shuddered involuntarily; it was almost too horrible to think about. Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner had survived their experiences by the grace of God. The ones who followed were obviously not going to be so lucky.

"Do you think Ross knows?" Maria asked.

"Maybe," Natasha answered wearily. "But even if this first trial group isn't a success, I don't think that's going to deter him. He's found his mission and he's going to stick with it."

Sharon led Wanda away, towards the elevators. The young woman was out on her feet, and Natasha felt a deep twinge of sympathetic pain.

"Go home," Natasha repeated to Sam and Maria. "Call me whenever you wake up."

"I really need to shower first," Maria regarded herself with a moue of distaste. "Even my grime has grime on it. Ugh."

"I know what you mean," Natasha sighed sympathetically. "My skin is just crawling. I can't wait to clean myself up." She gave them both a weary smile. "Goodnight, you guys."

"Goodnight."

As they left the garage together, Maria turned to Sam.

"That was amazing, what you did tonight," she said admiringly.

"Yeah, well, I'm used to pulling off that stunt with a pair of wings," he admitted ruefully. "Been a while since I did a rescue with a drop cable." He gallantly made no mention of his bruised ribs.

"I didn't mean saving Natasha."

Sam frowned in puzzlement. "Then what did you mean?"

"What you did for Wanda."

"Oh..."

"Sam, you ran nearly three kilometers on a mountain plateau, carrying an injured girl in your arms, in the middle of a storm, at night, with next to zero visibility. And not once did you break stride, or even slow down."

"I... wasn't thinking about it," Sam answered, flustered. "Just doing what had to be done."

"I think that's the hottest thing I've ever seen." Maria's admiring smile changed slightly, now having a distinctly carnal undertone. If Sam wasn't flustered before, he certainly was now.

"Oh... I... uhh..."

"Take you home?" Maria asked shyly.

Sam hesitated for only a moment, gauging the subtext of Maria's invitation. He realized he would be only too happy to accept, and responded with a shy smile of his own. "Sure. I'd like that. Thanks."

* * *

Back in the garage, Natasha walked over to where Nick Fury was standing.

"Had yourself a little adventure, did you?" he asked mildly.

"You could say that," Natasha smiled ruefully. "I wasn't sure I was going to see you here," she admitted.

"I'm the security operations officer. It's my job to be onsite when the away teams return, and conduct the debrief," Fury reminded her.

"Well, then, let's see. The debrief is: we lost Sandy Two. She got 'hulked'. Wanda has a broken elbow. Everyone on the team has a fresh batch of scrapes, scratches and bruises, and we've all been covered head to toe in mud. That's everything in the minus column," Natasha informed him.

"And Banner?"

"He wasn't there. But General Ross was. And he's almost managed it, Nick. He has a platoon of enhanced soldiers stationed out there in your old base. He doesn't have all the bugs worked out yet, but he's close. Very close."

"Damn," Fury swore softly.

"Ross tried to hold Wanda captive. He was going to use her for some of his so-called experiments. We basically had to fight our way out of a US military base. No soldiers were seriously injured, but there's definitely going to be fallout from that little fiasco."

"Thanks for letting me know. I'll get on it right away."

Natasha smiled wearily. "I think it can wait until morning, Nick."

"It is morning, Romanoff. There's only an hour left before sunrise."

"I meant, we can worry about it after you and I have both had eight hours of uninterrupted sleep." She gave the old man a look of abject contrition. "Nick, I am so sorry about this morning," she apologized. "I really flew off the handle. That was absolutely the wrong way to deal with that situation. I'm sorry."

"It's your prerogative as team leader to come down on your people, if you don't think they're on the same page with you," Fury reminded her gently.

"Still. I could have handled that better. A lot better," Natasha admitted. "Please accept my apologies."

"Accepted. Now forget about it."

Natasha smiled gratefully. "I need you, Nick," she confessed openly. "If this is going to work, this team, this mission, then I literally can't do it without you. I need you even more than I need Maria - and I consider her indispensable. I know you've got my back. I just forget sometimes, we used to be spies. And spies have lots of secrets."

"I wish I could tell you this was last dumpster fire you'll have to put out from the break-up of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Fury said sadly. "But I doubt it. I can only promise you one thing, Natasha. When something like this comes up again, anything I know, you'll know."

"That's all I can ask." She paused. "I don't know what finally convinced you to come work with us, Nick, but I am very, very glad you did."

Fury snorted humorlessly. "Yeah, well... I had a lot of time to think, while I was recovering in the hospital. And I was going to do it, you know. Walk away. Retire. Wash my hands of everything."

"What made you change your mind?"

"You did."

"Me?"

"You came to me, looking for help putting a team together," Fury reminded her. "And once that first mission was over, you and Maria decided to keep it going." He paused. "I'm not always proud of every op I approved while I was Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.," he confided. "But every op was done with the hope of leaving the world a better and safer place afterwards. You and Maria are on a similar mission. You're not trying to take over the world. You just want to protect the people living on it. That's a mission worth putting off retirement for."

As Natasha smiled gratefully at the gruff old man, her personal intercom beeped. Bemused that it was still working, she touched the intercom button.

"Hey, Sharon."

"I've confirmed Wanda has a simple fracture at the base of her elbow," Sharon reported. "She'll need to wear a sling for several weeks, and I can guide her through some physical therapy that will speed healing. But no surgery needed, and no complications."

"That's wonderful news!"

"I've given her something for the pain, and now I'm going to take her down to the gym showers, help her get cleaned up. You can take her home in about fifteen minutes."

"I'll come join you," Natasha replied. "I reek so badly I can't stand myself. Thanks, Sharon. Thanks for everything."

"You're very welcome. See you downstairs."

Natasha turned back to Fury. "Well, I think that's definitely enough mischief for one night," she decided. "I'll check in with you tomorrow?"

"Sounds good."

"Oh, one other thing." Natasha was just about to turn away when she suddenly remembered something. "Give Tony Stark a call. Tell him..." she paused. "Tell him we're in."

"Wilco," Fury nodded.

"Good night, Nick. And - thank you."

"You're welcome. And goodnight... boss," Fury grinned at her.

* * *

A short time later, Natasha and Wanda arrived at their new home, and Natasha helped her injured teammate with putting on a nightdress and clambering into bed.

"I really didn't think I needed help getting tucked in," Wanda Maximoff sighed disconsolately. "But I guess I do."

Natasha carefully supported the young woman's back as Wanda gingerly laid herself down onto her bed. "Well, you didn't just break your arm, Wanda. You're nothing but one big bruise, head to toe. It will get easier for you in a couple days, but in the meantime, you need to rest."

Wanda made a face. "Sharon says I have to keep my arm in a sling for six weeks," she complained.

"It won't take that long," Natasha assured her, pulling up the bedcovers and then taking a seat on the edge of the bed. "You follow all the PT instructions she gives you, to the letter, and I promise, that sling will be gone in no time." She reached over to stroke Wanda's dark red hair. "We're widows. We heal fast."

Wanda looked up Natasha, her eyes filled with adoration. "You fought off a Hulk with your bare hands," she said in an awed whisper.

"Yeah. I sure did," Natasha agreed ruefully. She could feel her battered body beginning to swell even now. Tomorrow, she would be sporting a particularly nasty set of bruises of her own. "Probably not the smartest thing I've ever done," she admitted.

"That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen," Wanda gushed, and then her eyes began to well with tears. "You saved my life."

"Well, you save mine, every day," Natasha answered in all sincerity. "I think we're even." She clasped Wanda's hand tightly. "I would fight off an army of Hulks with my bare hands every day, to keep you safe," she vowed solemnly. She leaned over and left a tender kiss on Wanda's forehead. "I love you, Wanda Maximoff," she whispered. "With all my heart."

"I love you too, Natalia Alianovna," Wanda answered, her speech slightly slurred as she finally began to succumb to a combination of exhaustion and painkillers.

"Get some sleep." Natasha got up from the bedside, turned out the light and headed for the door. "I'll see you in the morning."

Barely awake herself, Natasha more or less stumbled into her own bedroom, slipped out of her blouse and slacks, kicked off her shoes and collapsed in a heap onto her bed. She just managed to get the bedcovers pulled up over herself before she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

* * *

Despite her exhaustion, Natasha woke shortly after 10 AM. Wanting to sleep longer, but feeling she should at least check in with Fury, she quickly showered and dressed, then looked in on Wanda. The girl was still sleeping soundly. Natasha left a fresh glass of water and a note saying where she'd gone on Wanda's nightstand, then left the house.

It was a short drive from Natasha's new home to the new headquarters. _We should call this place the Web,_ she thought with sudden inspiration. _The Widow's Web. We just need to come up with some goofy acronym using the letters w,e,b._

She glared at herself in the rear view mirror. "I must be more tired than I thought," she grumbled irritably.

As she entered the lobby, she found she had a visitor. Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes, still recovering from his injuries, was seated in a wheelchair in front of the security desk. He smiled warmly as she entered.

"Morning, Natasha. Fury said I could wait for you here. He was just about to call you."

Natasha froze as she saw him. Rhodes held up his hands in a placating gesture.

"Before you say anything, nobody's coming for you," he declared. "You're safe, Natasha. And Wanda is safe. And you're free to go about your business."

Natasha sighed with relief. Rhodes said exactly what she needed to hear, right off the bat. But she was still wary. "Why are you here, Rhodey?"

"I'm here at the direct order of the joint chiefs. They thought you might be willing to listen to a friendly face."

Natasha thought that over. She sat down on one of the lobby benches nearest to him.

"Okay," she said. "I'm listening."

"First of all, no charges will be filed against you or your team for your trespass on a military base."

 _"Our_ trespass?"

"We understand that you had no idea the site was in use by the US military when you arrived there yesterday. The incident has been classified as an accident. General Ross called the joint chiefs himself to clarify the mistake, and to recommend that no further action be taken."

"More likely to cover his own ass," Natasha snorted in disgust. "He tried to kidnap Wanda, and experiment on her against her will. Did he also mention that?"

"And had he been successful, the Pentagon would have backed him on it," Rhodes countered. He sighed. "You have to understand, Natasha, the political and military landscape around the world has changed drastically since Thanos. And not for the better. Any government still functioning is considering placing their nation under more or less permanent martial law, including the United States. You have no idea how close we are to a complete lockdown."

"Meaning what, exactly?"

"Meaning, up to and including an indefinite suspension of the Constitution. Military curfews. Detention centers. The works. There are a lot of very frightened people in high places right now."

Natasha thought that over for a moment, and decided she wasn't sympathetic.

"Have you seen what goes on at that horror show he calls a military base?" Natasha asked angrily. "Some of those kids are really damaged, Rhodey."

"Every marine who volunteers for the program is told the risks right up front," he answered. "And they're willing to take those risks. To serve the greater good."

Natasha couldn't hide her complete revulsion, and Rhodes regarded her frame of mind with concern. "Look. Ross isn't wrong about the threat. And he has the full backing of the Pentagon and the White House behind him," he said. "Despite any setbacks in the program, Operation Greenskin is going to continue and likely will be accelerated. And believe me, that's not the only program of its kind out there."

"It's ghoulish," Natasha shuddered.

"It's a war for our survival," Rhodes said simply. "Anyway, your little field trip onto a secret military base means you've very much caught the attention of all the top brass at the Pentagon. Not to mention most of the US intelligence agencies."

"Oh, swell," Natasha groaned.

"This doesn't have to be a bad thing, Natasha. A covert response team such as yours was going to draw a lot of interest anyway, especially since your team includes several former Avengers, not to mention one of the few women left alive who has honest-to-God super powers."

"We're not putting this team together, just to hand it over to the US military or anybody else," Natasha said firmly. "We are not going to be any one country's private response team to further their political or military interests over another."

"That's understood," Rhodes assured her. "But all the top brass at the Pentagon would be very interested in pursuing a working partnership with you and your team, where our security interests intersect - say, for example, Thanos decides he wants an encore and threatens the entire world again."

"And I'm supposed to believe they have no intention of compromising our autonomy?"

"The joint chiefs consider what happened in Central America to be a missed opportunity. They don't want to throw any of you in jail, far from it. Frankly, we could use your help. And the consensus view is, we'd have much better chance of securing your buy-in, if we offered you a carrot instead of a stick."

"So, what's the carrot?"

"Me. I'm the carrot."

Natasha raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"The DoD is formally requesting your permission to let me join you here - not as a member of your team, but as your official liaison to the Pentagon," Rhodes clarified. "No strings attached."

"Why? So you can spy on us?"

"I have to report to my superiors, yes. But the goal here isn't to co-opt your team, Natasha. A lot of people in high places are scared. Really scared. When there's another event like the Chitauri, or Thanos, and one will happen eventually, we'd really like to be able to call you in for help. And that help goes both ways. If you have an op where it might be prudent to have a SEAL team backing you up, or if you need air, sea or land transport, the military would be willing to consider all requests for aid on a case-by-case basis. And those requests would be run through me."

"What if I don't want to play?"

"Nobody's going to throw you in jail, if that's what you're asking. Unless you decide to go rogue and start threatening US citizens, or blowing up buildings, or something like that."

Natasha thought that over.

"I trust you, Rhodey, but I can't say the same for your bosses," she said finally. "I need time to think about this."

"Understood. Take all the time you need. And feel free to call me anytime." He offered her a somber smile. "Hell. Doesn't even have to be about work. It's been a while since we talked for real. You're free to call if you just want to go out for a beer."

Natasha finally managed a sincere, welcoming smile for her old friend. "It really is good to see you, Rhodey," she said sincerely.

"Same here, Natasha. You take care. I'll be seeing you soon." He started to turn his wheelchair away. "There is one favor I'd like to ask," he said. "Something personal."

"Sure."

"Please tell Sam for me, no hard feelings."

Natasha felt another twinge of pain tugging at her heart. "I'll tell him," she promised.

"Great. Until later, then."

After Rhodes exited the building, Natasha stood in the empty lobby for a moment, considering the implications of their conversation. Finally, she sighed with exasperation, and then rattled off an impressively long string of expletives, first in English, then repeating the entire series of phrases in Russian. It solved nothing, but it made her feel somewhat better afterwards.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Natasha found Maria on her back porch, relaxing contentedly in one of her deck chairs. She was as casually dressed as Natasha had ever seen her: t-shirt, jean shorts and flip-flops. Her long, bare legs were stretched across a patio ottoman, and there was a half-finished beer beside her chair and a small cooler between the chairs. She was the perfect picture of languid repose.

"You look comfortable," Natasha grinned, taking the seat beside her.

"I am comfortable," Maria declared, not opening her eyes. "Help yourself to a beer in the cooler. Or grab anything you like out of the fridge."

"I think I will. Thanks." Natasha reached into the cooler and pulled out a beer bottle. She twisted off the cap and took a long swig. The icy cold liquid felt good going down her throat. Although the sun was behind the trees at this point in the afternoon, and the patio was shaded, the air was still warm enough to make someone drowsy almost immediately. Natasha settled herself into her chair, feeling relaxed and content. "I could get used to this," she sighed happily.

"So, how's our rookie and her broken wing?" Maria asked.

"Grumpy. Trying to figure out how to do everything with one hand. She's already pestering me about coming back to work."

"Tell her to relax. She fought an army of Hulks yesterday. I think she deserves a day off."

"That's exactly what I told her."

"Uh-huh. And how are you doing?"

"Me? I'm fine."

"I figured you'd say something like that. For the record, I'm calling shenanigans." Maria's bantering tone became slightly more serious. "I had to ask, though. I know this was a tough op for you. I just want to be sure that you're okay."

"I appreciate that, Maria. Very much. Thank you." Natasha grinned mischievously. "So, what time did Sam leave?"

Maria didn't react immediately. She finally turned her head to one side and gave her friend a reproving look. "You really don't miss a thing, do you?"

"It was kind of hard not to notice," Natasha teased gently. "You weren't exactly subtle."

"I don't have time for subtle," Maria answered, somewhat defensively.

Natasha gave her friend a reassuring smile. "Relax, partner. It's like Steve used to say. Nobody's breaking any by-laws. Whatever works for you guys, works for me."

Maria regarded Natasha for a long moment. Her friend was obviously sincere about not passing any judgment about the potential overlap between her private and professional lives. She relaxed.

"I really appreciate that. Thanks."

"Do you want to keep this quiet?"

"Please," Maria answered gratefully. "At least for now. We, ahh, didn't exactly plan for last night," she admitted. "I want to see if this turns into something, before sharing it with the rest of the team."

"Fair enough." After a moment's awkward silence, Natasha prodded gently, "So?"

"So, what?"

"Do you like him?"

"Natasha!" Maria remonstrated.

"Hey, I'm just asking."

Maria hesitated for a moment. "Sam is... he's amazing," she allowed.

"What, that's it? That's all you're giving me?" Natasha declared in mock indignation.

"For now," Maria retorted.

"Oh, my," Natasha grinned. "I've never known you to be this shy about anyone. He must be special."

"Hey, I don't have to invite you over to my house, you know," Maria growled.

"Okay, okay," Natasha decided it was best to stop tormenting her friend. "I'm just happy for you," she said sincerely. "And for what it's worth, I think you and Sam would make a great couple."

Maria thought that over for a moment. "That's crossed my mind, too," she confided in a quiet voice, and then, anxious to change the subject, added, "I'm sorry we didn't find Doctor Banner."

"Yeah," Natasha agreed sadly. "So am I."

"Just because he wasn't in Central America doesn't mean he's gone," Maria pointed out. "If he's alive, and on earth, we'll find him, Natasha. I give you my word."

Natasha couldn't help but be touched by Maria's gesture. "You're a very good friend to me, Maria, have I told you that?"

"You may have mentioned it a couple of times," Maria deadpanned.

"Well, it's true," Natasha answered in all sincerity. "I wouldn't even be able to think about doing all this without you. Thank you."

"Yeah, right back at ya, Fearless Leader. So, are you ever gonna tell me what Rhodey wanted to see you about?"

"And you talk about me not missing anything," Natasha retorted playfully.

"Come on, we used to be in spy business," Maria shot back.

"Well, we're not in the spy business any more," Natasha declared firmly. "I'll never keep secrets from you, Maria."

"Well, in that case..." the corners of Maria's mouth turned up in a wicked grin. "I'll tell you mine, if you tell me yours."

"I'm going to do way better than just tell you," Natasha declared. "I'm going to give you all the explicit details."

"Oh, I like explicit details," Maria laughed.

Natasha tilted her beer bottle towards Maria. "To the Black Widows," she toasted.

Maria picked up her beer, and they crossed their bottlenecks with a musical clink. "To the Black Widows."

The two women took long swigs from their beer bottles, then sat back and began to talk together, in the relaxed, easy way that only the closest of friends do; and they were still talking several hours later, as the first full moon of summer slowly began to rise over the tops of the nearest trees.


End file.
